Yellow Tulips
by Dusty Paws
Summary: There are consequences to breaking the heart of a vampire. Bella knows that better than most. And with Jane dead and buried Aro and his Volturi are on the warpath, seeking revenge for his broken heart. Alice/Bella with Alice/Jacob/Bella friendship...
1. I: Yellow Tulips

This is the sequel to Blue Roses as I promised. It is Alice/Bella so if you don't like go read something else ;) Also _italics _are visions for future reference.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it then it doesn't belong to me...unless you're Sunshine cause you'll probably recognise the OCs then and I definatly own them I asked them :P

* * *

Alice Cullen sat upon Bella Swan's windowsill, facing outwards so she could watch the world go by. Her human was downstairs talking with Charlie over their dinner. Alice missed being able to do that, even though she couldn't remember having eaten, or drunk anything for that matter, that wasn't blood. It was kind of hard to converse over a writhing deer.

She turned the tulip in her hands over carefully; it was yellow: hopeless love and happiness. Two things she had been feeling for what seemed to her like forever. She kept bringing Bella flowers now, just a single stem, and the girl had taken to pressing them in a blank book, drying them out into flattened versions of their former selves. Alice was also teaching her the meaning of the flowers and Bella was writing it beside them. One of Jacob's blue roses had been placed in there months ago on a whim, followed by a purple petunia that had been Edward's last gift and a daisy Alice had plucked from Bella's own garden.

Warm arms wrapped themselves around Alice's waist from behind startling her slightly until Bella's scent invaded her nostrils. "I missed you." Bella whispered in her ear, eliciting a tiny shiver from the vampire. It was never her blood that Alice lusted over when they were so close, it was the girl herself.

"I missed you too Sweetheart." Alice and her family had been on a hunting trip in the mountains most of the week due to the sunny weather and the girls had had no contact with each other bar a single phone call before she left. Alice placed the tulip into Bella's hand gently and felt the human smile into her neck. "Hopeless love and happiness." Bella's warmth left her back and she could hear the human wander over to the other side of her room and begin to leaf through the book of flowers. Alice slipped inside the room silently to sit on the bed. "I smell Jacob. Is he here?" The earthy smell of werewolf that she used to despise and now found comforting lingered in the room. She cast a lazy glance around the room even though at nearly seven foot tall he wouldn't be able to hide from Charlie let alone Alice.

"He dropped by earlier to ask how the vote went…" Alice lay back on the bed, revelling in Bella's scent. Bella wanted to be a vampire, it was a well-known fact and she'd put the idea to the rest of the Cullen coven the day before their impromptu vacation. Only Rosalie had objected to the idea of Bella becoming a vampire but she had her reasons and Alice knew that it wasn't to deny Bella the chance, just to make sure she knew what she was doing.

"And?" Alice closed her eyes, knowing that there was something else; Bella had left the sentence hanging, as if she'd forced herself not to finish. Bella sighed slightly keeping her back to the vampire.

"There's a barbecue on the Reservation tomorrow. He asked me if I wanted to go." Alice stayed silent. "It's with Sam's pack too so Jake said it'd be best if you stayed this side of the border." Bella rushed the last line and Alice had to fight a giggle.

"What did you say?" The human sat on the bed beside her and Alice opened one golden eye to watch her. She looked slightly downcast and the vampire frowned lightly.

"I said no. I didn't think you'd-"  
"I'm not Edward." Alice cut off her excuses with the simple fact. "I trust you and I don't need to be with you every second to make sure you're safe because I trust Jacob too." She rolled onto her side to look at Bella. "If you want to do something just do it. I'm not going to get mad because you can make your own plans. Ok?" Bella lay down on her side facing Alice with a half smile.

"Ok." Alice brushed her nose against the human's.

"Good." Bella yawned, eyes closing involuntarily eliciting a giggle from the smaller girl. "Tired?"  
"Well it is nearly midnight." Alice finally noticed that Bella was in fact wearing her pyjamas and night had already fallen outside.

"Sorry." Bella smiled.

"I don't mind. It's always easier to sleep when you're here." A grin pulled at Alice's lips; Bella really was good for her ego. The human scooted closer, resting her head into the crook of her companion's neck. Alice ghosted her fingers across Bella's back, drawing random patterns absent-mindedly.

"You're not scared of me are you?" She murmured softly feeling the human frown into her neck.

"No. Of course not. Why would I be scared of you love?" The term of endearment that Edward had always used didn't bother Alice anymore and she let the reassurance wash over her.

"It's just something Edward said once. Nothing really." Bella hummed her agreement sleepily as if it really was nothing but Alice could still hear her brother's voice hissing the words. _'She's probably as terrified of you as she is me by now.'_ She tried to denounce the voice as a liar but there was a tiny piece of her heart that was stricken dumb with fear that her Bella was afraid of her. Seemingly sensing her worry Bella draped one of her arms over Alice's slight frame with her warm fingers just touching the base of the vampire's spine

The human's breathing evened slightly and Alice's eyes fluttered closed, loving the feeling of being back with Bella. Her mind started to drift and she found herself half-believing she was falling asleep, that is until a picture swam into her mind.

_There was a beautiful young girl, who couldn't have been more than nine years old, with snow-white hair and sparkling carmine eyes standing beside the sign that stated you were now entering the town of Forks. An older girl with cropped blonde hair was creeping up behind the younger girl and once she reached her she swung the child around in her arms, tickling her. The girls laughed raucously. A boy joined them now, towering over them for a brief moment before tackling them both to the ground._

The picture blurred but Alice didn't get chance to open her eyes as she was thrown straight into another vision.

_There were two figures this time. A boy and a girl, both with long dark hair and they were standing over the laughing trio. The boy was smiling but the girl was speaking. The playing three stood slowly and followed the pair hand in hand in hand, with the blonde girl and boy swinging the child between them._

Alice gasped as the second vision faded; it was remarkably rare for her to have visions so close together and she could feel yet another hovering at the edges of her mind.

_Five figures this time. All of them solemn and all of them wearing black cloaks. Their faces were covered and a gold Volturi pendant glinted just out of their cloaks._

The visions finally stopped, leaving Alice breathing heavily but thankfully she hadn't woken Bella. The human would only worry and insist on going with her to talk to Carlisle. Bella was best left until morning Alice decided as she slipping out of the slumbering girls grip. She smiled down at the other girl before placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Sleep well Bella." She whispered before jumping from the window and racing home, determined to find Carlisle and tell him about the strangers that were headed their way.

* * *

Well then. I know nothing about what's going on here so I better go and think something up quick. Thank you for reading :)


	2. II: Pack Reunion 2010

Ok there's not much in the way of Alice/Bella here lots of friendshippiness but not much shippiness. This chapter was really just to get a feel for the new OCs before it all hits the fan 'cause you know it will.

* * *

"Are you sure?" Carlisle tapped his finger rhythmically against his desk, the ever thoughtful look on his face clouding his golden eyes.

"That those five are Volturi? No." Alice replied carefully with the images from her newly regained visions at the forefront of her mind. "That the Volturi are coming? Yes." Carlisle looked at his daughter with a faint smile; he was proud of her, very proud but sometimes, the times her visions were so vivid, she worried him.

"Did you see why they were coming?" He knew she only saw images, it was uncommon for her to be able to hear speech or noises and rare for her to be able to discern motives. Alice shook her head, dark spikes flying. Carlisle nodded slowly, casting a glance out of the window at the muted sun as it rose behind a thick layer of clouds, turning the sky a beautiful shade of orange. "You say the sun was just rising?"  
"Yes sir." He looked back at the girl and seeing the worry in her eyes that the Volturi could be coming, for any reason, made his decision.  
"Ok. Myself, you, Jasper and Emmett will meet them at the town limits and we will find out for sure." Alice smiled her thanks as she got to her feet and danced towards the door. "Be ready in five minutes." She nodded and darted down the corridor to find her brothers.

It didn't take her long and within ten minutes the four of them were stood beside the sign from her vision. There was no sign of the quintet. "You sure it was here Al?" Emmett muttered, leaning his huge frame against the signpost that creaked in response. "It could've been the other side of town." Alice shook her head vehemently; she knew it was this side of the town. She'd seen it.

"Of course she's sure." Jasper sent a wave of calm her way with a small smile. She returned it with a bright one of her own; he'd always backed her in cases like this. Always.

A whistled tune floated to their ears from just past the sign. All four Cullens turned to see a young girl of around seven skipping along a dirt path happily, ivory hair flying behind her and crimson eyes glinting in the sun. Tilting her head curiously Alice flitted over to her. "Hello." She offered a thin smile when the child stopped before her, a frown pulling at delicate features.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." Alice blinked; it wasn't the response she was expecting at all; not if the girl was a vampire and certainly not if she was Volturi. She knelt down and took hold of one of the girl's tiny hands. The child smelled like earth, which was a werewolf smell, not a vampire one.

"I'm Alice. What's your name?" The girl shook her head, eyes widening slightly and stepping backwards. "Hey come back." Alice made to chase the child, managing only to place a hand onto her thin shoulder before a growl from the trees stopped her. Before she could remember that one of the child's companions had been just behind her, even in the vision, she was being forced to the ground. The child's female companion pinned her easily; straddling her hips and holding her wrists.  
"Leave her be." The girl had a distinctly English accent to her rough voice but her eyes were fascinating. Her left was bottle green and her right was ice blue. Both burned with anger as they locked onto Alice's.

"I wasn't going to hurt her." Alice muttered noting the earthy smell of werewolf on the older girl as well. It appeared that they weren't Volturi vampires after all. "I'm Alice Cullen." She tried to introduce herself. The girl shifted her weight slightly but did not release her.  
"Rubes? Go fetch Lee for me please." She called over her shoulder to the child her voice softening considerably. The girl nodded and ran back into the trees. "My name is Lucy Reynolds. She is Ruby Sullivan. And you are a vampire." The rough tone was back. Alice heard more than saw her brothers and father move to hover over them. Lucy Reynolds tensed and her grip intensified.

"My name is Carlisle. These are my sons Emmett and Jasper." Carlisle spoke calmly, diplomatically but not once did Lucy's narrowed eyes relax. "My daughter receives visions of the future and she saw you arrive. We merely wished to investigate. I assure you no harm was meant to Ruby."

"Lucy. Leave the poor girl alone." A musical voice laced with a commanding tone came from the trees and the final three from Alice's vision joined them, Ruby at their head leading one of the young men by the hand. Without hesitation Lucy got to her feet, offering a hand to Alice. She didn't take it. "I'm sorry, she can be a little…rash." The speaker was a lithe girl with long brown hair, cerulean eyes and pale white skin. Beside her was a boy who could pass for her brother with the same long dark hair and sea blue eyes that were just bordering on green. The last of their group was a boy who stood at nearly seven feet tall with tousled blonde hair the same dual coloured eyes as Lucy and an easy smile. "I'm Amber." She smiled but there was still suspicion lurking in her eyes. "These are Michael and Leon." The two boys waved with slight grins. Alice finally placed the scent of the dark haired girl but there was no way she could be right.

"Are you vampires?" She asked, confusion seeping into her features; she had never heard of a vampire with blue eyes and she couldn't detect any indication of contact lenses in their eyes.

"Yup." The dark haired boy, Michael chuckled, popping the 'p' unnecessarily. Alice took an instant liking to the man; he was a lot less serious than his female companions.  
"How did you get that eye colour?" Carlisle's interest was obvious in his voice as he moved around his daughter to get a better look at Amber's eyes.

"Cold blooded animals." She replied, blinking quickly, as if she didn't want the doctor to see the brilliant blue.

"Just coming to investigate? Why the muscle?" Lucy asked quietly, one hand resting protectively on Ruby's shoulder as she looked pointedly at Emmett and Jasper.

"Alice also saw the Volturi arriving here." Carlisle admitted forcing eye contact with the girl.

"Me and my sister are werewolves Mr Cullen. Hardly Volturi material." Leon laughed and shared a conspiratorial smile with his twin.

"Besides Amber was unofficially exiled from Volterra a few years ago anyway." Interest sparked in Jasper's eyes and he stepped forwards slightly.

"Why?" Lucy opened her mouth to answer him; a devilish glint in her mismatched eyes but Amber placed a pale finger against the other girl's lips to stop her.

"It's not important." Lucy giggled slightly behind the finger that was keeping her quiet and Alice shared a confused glance with Jasper; the werewolf's emotions seemed to change at remarkable speeds. "What is important is that we're going to be late for a barbecue."  
"At La Push?" Alice didn't bother to hide her surprise.

"Yeah. Why?" Michael folded his arms with a half smile.

"I didn't realise vampire were invited." Alice felt a little downcast that these strange vampires were invited but Jacob didn't think that she should go. Jasper sent a wave of happiness her way but she shrugged it off.

"Technically they're not. But we're an add-on to these guys." The glint in Michael's eyes earned him a light slap from Amber.

"Can we go?" She directed her question to Carlisle, knowing that he was in charge of their coven. The doctor nodded.

"Of course." Leon swung Ruby into his well-muscled arms, eliciting a happy laugh from the girl and earning him a kiss on the cheek from her. Lucy laughed and followed them quickly, passing a nod, half in apology and half in goodbye towards Alice. Amber shook Carlisle's hand.

"Goodbye Mr Cullen." She smiled before following her friends, Michael at her side.

"That was different." Emmett muttered once they were out of earshot. "We weren't invited to this barbecue were we?" Alice shook her head slowly.

"No we weren't." They started their way home at a much slower pace than when they'd arrived.  
"You'd think we'd count as an 'add-on' to Bella right?" Alice gritted her teeth, trying to ignore her brother. Jasper placed a gently hand onto his soon-to-be-ex-wife's shoulder.

"Stop Emmett. Just stop." He shot the bear of a boy a meaningful glance and thankfully he fell silent.

/

Bella arrived at the beach early, Alice hadn't been there when she'd woken up for the first time in a long time and the vampire hadn't been answering her mobile either. When she got there the Quileutes were just setting up. Paul and Embry were digging a rather large fire pit, Leah and Seth were carrying crates over, Jacob was piling wood and Sam was talking to people that Bella didn't recognise. Jacob sniffed at the air suddenly and turned to her with bright eyes. Without warning he sprinted over and swept her into a hug. "You came!" He yelled in her ear, excitement dripping from his voice.

"Alice told me I should." Jacob released her slowly, his smile not fading an inch.  
"I should have asked her too but I didn't know Amber and Mike were going to show." He waved an arm in the general direction of Sam and the newcomers. "Could you call her?" Bella shook her head, her smile slipping slightly.

"Her phone goes straight to voicemail." Jacob punched her lightly on the shoulder.

"She probably went hunting, relax." She forced her smile back into place.

"Jake!" A deep voice yelled and in the blink of an eye a huge blond boy tackled her friend to the sand, laughing raucously. "You wolfed up."

"Hey Leon." Jake pushed the other boy away from him playfully and got to his feet, brushing sand from his shorts. "Where's your sister? I heard you imprinted and I'm sure she'll give me all the gory details." Leon waved at some point behind him.

"Back there somewhere. I think she went to help out." Bella looked at the new wolf; he was just as tall as Jake and obviously as strong but his eyes were different: one was blue and the other green.

"Bella this is Leon. Him and his sister Lucy used to be part of the Quileute pack back when Sam was younger. But Leon turned out to be an alpha and they had to leave. They stayed part of the pack though so we can keep in touch." He tapped the side of Leon's head with a grin.  
"She your imprint Jake?" Bella felt a blush rise on her face at Leon's innocent question. Jacob shook his head with a half-grin.

"She's with a vampire." Silently Bella thanked her best friend for not fully disclosing Alice's identity. She didn't know why she was worried the blond boy would know but she was still glad he didn't.

"Yeah we saw a group of them on the way here. Luce got into a bit of a scrap with the girl. Some kind of A–name." Bella's heart skipped a little.

"Alice?" Leon snapped his fingers.

"Yeah that's her. She was trying to talk with Ruby and Luce overreacted. She's been trying to teach Ruby how to control her transformations she got quite protective. Say sorry to your girl for her ok?" Bella blinked in stunned silence. "It was obvious, sorry." He winked at her, gave Jacob a punch on the shoulder and ran across the beach to where Seth was sitting on the rocks.

"Hey Jake! Little help?" Sam yelled at the boy who smiled an apology to Bella before racing off to help the other alpha wolf. Bella stood alone for a few seconds until a brunette wandered over to her.

"Hello there." The girl stopped beside her and gave a dazzling smile, her bright blue eyes grazing the human's form as if trying to commit it to memory. "I'm Amber."  
"Bella." The human blushed fiercely under the scrutiny, dark eyes searching for an escape route; the blue-eyed vampire was making her uncomfortable. She found herself wishing for Alice's company again.

"Will you behave?" A girl with cropped blonde hair and mismatched eyes, Bella assumed she was Leon's sister, stopped as she passed them with a crate of meat in her arms. Amber put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes.

"I was saying 'hello'." Lucy rolled her own dual coloured eyes and shifted the crate to slap the vampire upside the head.

"Exactly. We're here so Rubes can meet the pack not to find you a new lover. Let's not make this a repeat of Italy ok?" Amber snatched the crate and stalked away. "She gives you anymore grief just yell. Me or Lee'll come and rescue you." Bella smiled in thanks.

"Lucy?" A soft voice floated from hip height. Bella looked down to see a young girl with snow-white hair and red eyes. Ruby she presumed.

"Yeah Rubes?" Lucy's attention immediately switched to the little girl and she dropped to her knees to look her in the eyes.

"Can we go for ice cream?" The older girl chuckled softly.

"Did Lee say no again?" Ruby nodded sadly and Bella couldn't help but laugh; the child had already learned to ask another if one person said no. He's a mean imprint isn't he?" Lucy winked at the child who beamed hopefully. "Come on kiddo, hop on." Ruby ran around the older wolf and jumped onto her back. Lucy stood carefully. "We'll see you later. Bella right?"  
"Yeah." Bella waved at the child clinging to the blonde's back and Ruby's grin widened a little.

"Bye bye Bella."

* * *

Aw...I like Ruby :) thank you for reading this especially seeing as it hasn't really warmed up yet. If you want to tell me what you think of these guys that'd be great 'cause I'm not entirely sure what's going on with them yet...


	3. III: Drawing the Lines

A chapter a day keeps the Volturi away ;P

* * *

Bella's fingers danced across the numbers on her mobile in a well-practiced motion, keying in the digits that would put her through to Alice. The wolves had already finished setting up for their party but the human still couldn't get through. Sighing she placed the phone to her ear and again listened to the dial tone but this time a smile broke across her face when a click sounded; alerting her to the fact that someone had answered. "Bella." She could hear the smile on Alice's face. "What can I do for you my love?" The human chuckled.

"Jake wanted to extend the invitation to you." There was movement from the other end of the phone and a short burst of laughter.

"Emmett wants to know if he can come too. Especially if he can get away from Rose and there are some girls there." Bella giggled to herself; she knew Emmett would flirt with every girl he could lure into a conversation; she also knew that if anyone took him up on the flirting he would run for the hills. Straight back to Rosalie because he loved her too much to actually cheat on her.

"Sure. Why not." She heard Alice relay the message and a whoop of joy from Emmett. "I heard you got into a fight earlier." Alice fell silent. "With a girl called Lucy."  
"I wouldn't call it a fight. A misunderstanding sure but not a fight." There was the tiniest hint of guilt in the vampires voice and Bella immediately regretted bringing it up.

"Her brother wanted me to apologise for her that's all." She wandered along the beach just out of reach of the water as it lapped at the sand. "So you going to come over?" Bella smiled as a group of Quileute boys ran past her, all heckling the boy in the lead. After a second she recognised him to be Leon.

"Sure. Five minutes." Suddenly Bella could hear rushing air and realised that Alice was already on her way, at high speeds as well.  
"Should you be on the phone and driving at the same time?" Alice laughed and she could hear Emmett chuckle too.

"I'm running Sweetheart relax." Bella knew that there would be a devilish sparkle in the familiar golden eyes and suddenly wanted her to run faster because the faster Alice ran the sooner Bella would get to see her again. It suddenly occurred to her exactly how attached she had grown to the vampire, the feeling should worry her but it didn't and she was going to enjoy it. Forever if she had her way.

"Love you." The words slipped from her thoughts and then from her lips, raising a light blush on her cheeks. She scanned the beach and was glad that no one stood nearby.  
"You too Bell. You too." Alice hung up. Bella returned her phone to her pocket slowly, anticipation blooming in her stomach and her eyes checking the tree line for the first signs of vampire.

"Bella." Jacob ran up to her with a large grin on his face. "You're gonna miss the sparring come on." She let the boy grasp hold of her hand and pull her across the beach, both of them laughing, until they reached a section of the beach that had been outline in rocks. "Sam challenged me earlier so we're up first." There was an excited sparkle in his dark eyes and Bella couldn't restrain the smile from pulling at her lips but when he pulled his shorts off she covered her eyes. Jacob laughed completely comfortable even without clothes. "Wish me luck."  
"Luck." She smiled but didn't move her hands an inch from her eyes until she heard him drop onto all fours. Jacob ambled confidently into the makeshift arena, russet fur rippling in the light breeze to cheers and a few good-natured catcalls from Sam's pack. A huge black wolf jumped onto the sand opposite him and they shared wolfy grins as they circled each other.

Sam made the first move; a swipe at Jacob's muzzle and Bella gasped but the brown wolf recoiled and the paw missed his face by mere inches. Jacob retaliated by launching himself at the slightly larger wolf and tackling him to the ground. The black wolf rolled easily and tossed Jacob away from him, through the sand before diving back at him and pinning him down. Jacob's fur receded back to russet skin but his smile never faded and he burst into laughter as Sam let him stand. Bella averted her eyes but not before she saw Jacob ruffle the wolf's dark fur fondly.  
"I'll get you one these days old wolf." He laughed and Sam growled until the younger alpha hopped out of the arena and scrambled back into his shorts. "Should be Leon's turn now. He's been trying to beat Sam for years." Jacob told Bella gleefully and sure enough a dark blonde wolf trotted into the ring with little Ruby clinging to his back amidst applause and laughter. Ruby clapped her hands happily and slid off of her imprint's back when he stopped moving and ran off towards Lucy to watch.

"Sam'll win." A musical voice told her, she turned to see Amber licking blood from her fingers. Her once brilliant blue eyes now held a tint of green at the edges. "Warm-blooded animals. Makes a change I suppose." There was a hint of distaste in her voice but Bella ignored it. "Enjoying the show?" Amber's eyes flickered to the fight for a second, just long enough to see Sam flip Leon to the floor expertly before turning back to the human.  
"Yeah I guess." Bella tried a smile but found herself searching out Lucy to rescue her. The other girl however had her back to Bella with Ruby sat on her shoulders to give the child a better view.

"Relax Bella. I won't bite." A salacious smirk pulled at scarlet lips. "Unless you want me too." A sudden coldness enveloped Bella's back and sides.

"Hey Bells." Alice's voice whispered in her ear as her arms snaked around Bella's waist. The human smiled, placing her hands over Alice's icy ones.  
"You made it." Bella didn't need to look at the vampire's face to know she was sending Amber warning glares, just as she didn't need to comment to know that the hug was a purely possessive gesture. What was surprising to her was that she didn't mind one bit.

"Of course I did." Alice pressed her cold lips to Bella's neck, eliciting a shiver from the human and a half smirk from the blue-eyed vampire. "Emmett went to watch the fights." Bella cast a glance over to the arena to see the heavy set Cullen cheering Sam as Leon wandered off the sand, towards his shorts.

"Told you." Amber murmured as Alice finally released Bella. "Leon loses every year." There was a bout of silence until another blonde wolf stepped into the ring. "And now Sam's tired and Lucy'll beat him." Amber was confident as she folded her arms, Bella and Alice shared a frown.

"How can you tell?" Alice's tone wasn't as friendly as usual but at least it wasn't outright hostile Bella mused. Amber looked down on the spiky headed vampire.  
"Sam's slower and Lucy's been playing the long game, waiting for the chief to lag. It's the same every year. Leon may be her alpha but he'll quite happily wear Sam down for her." Amber looked at the brawling wolves on the beach in time to see Sam toss Lucy to the sand. The blonde wolf stayed still until the dark wolf wandered over to finish her and then leapt at him, throwing him clean away and pinning him down. Sam's fur receded to reveal a grin on his normally serious face.  
"I will get the three in a row one of these years kiddo." Lucy changed back as well and shook his hand.

"Not this year old timer." She grinned before looking to where Ruby was sitting on Leon's shoulder, one of her hands in his hair. "You mind if we show Rubes off a little?" Sam shook his head amiably and took the child from her imprint, setting her to the ground as carefully as he would one of his own.

"Show me what you can do Ruby." The child turned away as she stepped out of her clothes and dropped to the floor, ice white fur already growing across her body. Within seconds she had smoothly made the transformation into a small white wolf the size of a large dog. "She's a natural." Lucy ran a hand through the child's fur with an affectionate smile. Leon wandered over in his own wolf form, pressing his nose against his sister's hand.

"Yeah I love you too brother of mine." She rolled her mismatched eyes as almost everyone dropped into their wolfen forms and went to introduce themselves to Ruby, sniffing at her carefully.

"This happens every year?" Bella asked quietly watching as the group of car-sized wolves began to frolic in the dunes.

"Yeah. There isn't always a newcomer but the games are the same. And the food usually. Arguments tend to kick off before we get to the food though so I hunted early." A dazzling sparkle was born in her eyes as the sun began to set behind her. "I don't suppose I can persuade either of you to sit with me later?" Her head jerked forwards as a loud crack sounded and Lucy's hand connected with the back of her head.

"Seriously Am. Stop it." She hissed, hands on hips and mismatched eyes blazing with dull fire. "Please."  
"Hypocrite." The vampire muttered darkly. Lucy sighed.

"We are not having this argument again."

"Whatever." Amber turned on her heel with a final burning glance towards Bella and stalked away.  
"I'm sorry for earlier by the way." The blonde held out a hand towards Alice who shook it carefully. "I get a little paranoid around vampires. It's nothing personal I promise. They just have a habit of causing trouble." Bella snickered earning her a playful slap on the arm from Alice.

"I forgive you. Is Amber always so…forward?" The vampire's arm had somehow snaked around Bella's waist again.

"No." Bella sighed in relief. "Sometimes we manage to lose her in the woods for a while." Lucy winked eliciting a laugh from the duo. "Mikey should go and find her in an hour or so. She always storms off around sundown. It's almost tradition now."

"Thank you anyway." Alice smiled. The crowd of werewolves hurtled by swiftly followed by Emmett and Michael who were both laughing loudly. Lucy glanced after them.

"I'll see you guys at some point. Maybe tonight, more likely tomorrow. But I'll see you at some point." The werewolf grinned again before breaking into a sprint, pulling her shirt over her head as she ran.

"Sounds like you've had an entertaining day." Alice smiled. Bella took one of the vampire's cold hands and picked at her fingers.

"Would've been better if you'd been here." She muttered. Alice pulled the human into her arms.

"I'm sorry. I had a vision I had to tell Carlisle about and didn't want to wake you." She dropped a feather light kiss onto Bella's head.

"Volturi?" The human murmured into her neck. She nodded slowly. "You're going to have to change me soon aren't you?"

"I'm not going to change you until you're ready Bell. Volturi or no Volturi." Bella kissed her vampire softly with a smile.

"I'll be ready after graduation." If the answer surprised Alice she didn't let it show; graduation was only two days away.

"Then after graduation it is."

* * *

Yeah...Bella as a newborn could be fun...


	4. IV: Graduating Mortality

And on we go, in my defense I know absolutely nothing about graduation since I'm from England so bear with me. Also **scottsgirl1011 **you made my entire day; I honestly didn't think anyone would pick on that well done :)

* * *

Graduation came with a terrifying speed after the decision was made. Alice had arranged with Charlie for Bella to stay with them, at the Cullen's house, for a week immediately after the ceremony. Bella herself was worried about her father and loath to leave him; knowing that she probably wouldn't be able to see him again. Ever. Alice smiled at the slumbering human on the morning of their graduation she needn't worry; Jacob had confided in Alice that he had a plan to deal with Charlie in order to make the transition smoother. Alice was grateful that the werewolf hadn't reacted badly to the idea of Bella becoming a vampire, he didn't like it but he wasn't outright opposing it either.

Just behind Bella she could see the closet and the two canary yellow gowns hanging on the door. Her grin widened a little; she hadn't got a yellow graduation cap in her collection yet. She had virtually every other colour but never had she been to a high school with yellow as one of their prominent colours.

Footsteps that Charlie tried painstakingly to keep soft sounded on the staircase. Automatically Alice untangled her legs from Bella's and slipped from the warm bed to the makeshift one on the floor beside it and feigned sleep, already missing the human's warmth. That would be one of the things she'd miss after she changed Bella. And it would be her because Bella herself had requested it. She'd miss the sound of her heartbeat too, and the comforting motion of her breathing and even the endearing clumsiness that the girl would be sure to leave behind in this life.

She tried not to giggle when Charlie opened the door barely an inch to avoid it creaking and looked in on them. Alice hated depriving the man she had grown to love of his daughter but there was nothing she could do short of changing him too. But she knew that the Chief wasn't meant for the world of vampires, it was his place to keep Forks a safe place for the living until he died. She didn't need to be Jasper to know he was content with that. "Girls." Charlie said in a loud stage whisper and a giggle bubbled in her chest and threatened to burst from her lips. "Girls." Bella began to stir and Alice decided it would be safe to 'awake' herself.

"Mornin' Charlie." She murmured, rubbing her eye for good measure.

"Hey Alice. Sleep well?" Alice tilted her head to the side slightly and smiled up at the Chief.

"Ok I guess. I think I was a little nervous about today." That wasn't a lie. If vampires could sleep at all hers would have been fitful at best; kamikaze butterflies had been fluttering around her stomach every time she thought of changing Bella.

"You'll be fine kiddo." Charlie smiled, his moustache twitching and dark eyes sparkling as Bella rolled over to look at him with bleary brown eyes.

"Trying to sleep Dad." She muttered, sleeping lacing her voice. "If you wanna flirt with my Dad Alice go downstairs and do it." Alice giggled and Bella pulled the cover over her head.

"Bell you've got to get up. You guys graduate today." Alice saw Bella's form tense beneath the cover as the human realised the connotation to her graduation; today was the day she turned into a vampire. Slowly she pulled the cover from her head and sat up.

"I'm up." She whispered. Charlie's smile faltered a little at her tone but he backed out of the room as soon as Alice got to her feet. "I'm going to die today." Bella murmured. Alice's heart broke a little at the sound of her voice and she knelt back down, in front of Bella and took both of the warm hands into her own.

"Not if you don't want to." The human smiled weakly and the vampire ghosted a kiss across her knuckles. "Arrangements can be unmade Sweetheart. If you don't want this-"  
"Don't you?" Alice chuckled quietly, now placing a kiss on each and every fingertip of Bella's hands.

"Of course I do. But what I want doesn't matter here. It's your life and your choice." Bella blushed when bright topaz eyes fixed on her; Alice had hunted excessively over the past few days in preparation.

"You're part of my life." She whispered shyly.

"I'll be here no matter what you choose Bella. But first we need to get through graduation." Alice got to her feet and plucked her gown from the closet. "You know I never had a yellow cap before now? This is going to be awesome." Bella laughed aloud and stood as well. Alice smiled victoriously and tossed the human her gown.

/

Alice wandered into the school hand in hand with Bella. The gym had been decked out with yellow and red flowers for the occasion and the room was bordering on full. Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie met them at the back of the hall with smiles. "Congratulations Bella." Jasper murmured, appearing to be holding his breath. After a few seconds Bella realised that was exactly what he was doing and refrained from hugging him.

"Thanks. You too." Jasper laughed with Alice.

"We've done this many times Bella. But you never forget your first time." Emmett giggled childishly at his brother's choice of words, bringing a light blush to Bella's cheeks and a smile to Alice's lips. The vampire squeezed the human's hand reassuringly.

"People. To your seats." Mr Varner called over to their group and they meandered to the front of the hall to find the few remaining seats that had been left for them. Only Alice, Bella and Jasper managed to find seats together. Alice found herself sitting beside Tobias Correll from art class.  
"Hello Alice." He whispered deep blue eyes smiling at her. There was something in his eyes now that unsettled her. She didn't understand. She should not feel unsettled by a human she hardly knew; it wasn't logical when she could very easily tear him to pieces. She took a deep breath through her nose just to check he was human and found something unidentifiable in his scent. But he smelled human. It still didn't make sense and suddenly she found herself wishing for Edward so he could look into the boy's mind.

"Hi Toby." She hissed back as Eric, who was valedictorian for their year stepped up on stage. "How's tricks?" Toby smiled secretively and stayed silent, appearing to listen to Eric speech on 'moving on into new lives'. Alice ran her thumb over Bella's knuckles and they shared a smile.

"Good Alice." Toby murmured just as Eric finished. "I know you're a vampire." He added as applause broke out. Alice choked on air but tried to look normal. "I also know you plan on biting Bella."  
"How?" The applause died out and Toby dropped his smile as Mr Varner strode onto the stage and began to call names.

"My mother hunted your kind and my father was your kind." Alice frowned; it was unheard of for a vampire and a human to have a child together. "Just call me Toby Van Helsing." She didn't appreciate the joke.

"What do you want?" Toby giggled and Alice was stricken by how strange it sounded in his smoky English voice.

"Nothing my dear Alice. Just for you to know that I know that you're the good guys." Alice's name was called in that moment and she stood mechanically to take her scroll from Mr Varner. Accepted his congratulations and stood beside the other pupils while they waited for the others, mind whirring the whole time.

/

"A half vampire boy?" Carlisle sounded shocked at Alice's news, which in Alice's book was a bad thing. If her father knew nothing about it then she believed that it could not exist. In a way she was like a small child with her own father; believing that he knew all and could protect her from all. The thought brought a smile to her lips. "Well that is interesting." Alice could hear the rest of their family downstairs along with a group of humans that had been invited by Alice and Emmett for a post-graduation party. Bella would be changed afterwards. She knew that it was only a matter of time before somebody noticed that she was gone and was feeling antsy.

"What do we do?" She didn't know what the boy would do once Bella was changed. As Sam had once said to Bella 'it's one thing to think about the change but its entirely another to go through with it'.

"There is nothing we can do Alice. Nothing at all." The look in Carlisle's eyes worried her slightly more than his lack of knowledge on the subject but she nodded anyway and made her way back to the party. Silently she slipped an arm around Bella's waist and laid her head on the taller girl's shoulder. Bella spared her a glance and a smile, wrapping her own arm around Alice and resting her head on Alice's, never once faltering in her conversation with Jessica.

"You moved on from Edward then? Is this why you broke up?" Alice swallowed a retort deciding to let Bella handle the human with much more tact than she herself could have managed.

"Yes and yes." Bella smirked at the blatant shock on the girl's face. "And not that it's any of your business but that's why Edward left too." A slow smile spread across Jessica's face and she turned away.

"Hey Mike!" She yelled over the music, across the room Mike looked up his face resembling that of a deer in the headlights. "You owe me ten bucks!" She laughed before turning back to Bella and Alice. "Congratulations. I'm going to collect before he runs." The pair shared bemused looks as the human darted into the dispersing crowd. It was late and people were leaving. Alice's kamikaze butterflies were back.

"That was surreal." Bella muttered pulling Alice closer. She hummed in agreement. "You ok?"  
"Just nervous." She began to steer Bella upstairs. The change would be taking place in Alice's room simply because she was now the only one bar Jasper who didn't have to share a room and since Jasper wasn't the one biting her it had to be her room. "I've never done this before."  
"I trust you." Bella released Alice to turn to her as soon as they reached the room in question. They both refused to acknowledge the IV beside the bed and the extensive medical supplies scattered through the room until they absolutely had to. "I trust you completely." It was surprising how little those words reassured her. Alice pulled Bella into a close hug, planting a gentle kiss onto her cheek.

"I know but I'm still worried." Bella pulled away to kiss the vampire's lips softly.

"Don't be." A wolf-whistle sounded from behind them, they turned their heads but didn't release each other to see Jacob leaning on the doorway.  
"Can I get a goodbye hug Bells?" The giant of a boy held his arms out and Bella flew into them, burying her face in his chest. He sniffed and Alice suddenly realised he was crying.  
"It's not goodbye." Bella's voice was muffled by Jacob's body but both vampire and werewolf heard her clearly and shared a sad glance.

"It is Bella. At least for a little while. I can't be around you when you're lusting after blood. It'd be too painful, I'm sorry." Jacob squeezed Bella closely, inhaling her scent.  
"I won't hurt anybody." Bella sounded insistent and Alice shifted uncomfortably. She's hurt people when she's first been changed. She'd hurt a fair few people until she had her vision of Carlisle and his coven.

"Whatever you say Bella. Whatever you say." When Bella pulled away from the werewolf there were tears in her eyes and Alice hated Jacob for a second for being the one to put them there.

Carlisle bustled into the room, white lab coat swinging with his every move and the butterflies in Alice's abdomen flew at Concorde speeds into the walls of her stomach. It was time. Carlisle silently guided Bella to the bed and she lay down slowly eyes never leaving Jacob's in unspoken apology. With clinical ease the doctor slid a needle into Bella's arm; it was a painkiller that he had smuggled out of the hospital after his shift. Bella's eyes began to drift closed and Alice drifted closer.

As the human's eyes grew unfocused Alice brushed her lips over Bella's before placing them against her jugular. She kissed the spot she was going to bite then sunk her teeth into the flesh, drawing the sweet blood into her mouth and replacing it with bitter venom. Forcing herself away from Bella's neck she repeated the procedure with both of her wrists. Once she was done she hurled herself away, slick blood over her lips. Jacob caught her and pulled her into his warm arms.

"Forgive me." She whispered, swallowing in an attempt to rid herself of the taste of Bella's blood. "Oh please forgive me."

* * *

Yay Bella vampire soon, I'm excited already :)


	5. V: Beautiful Toxicity

Purely a filler chapter today with plot and character development type things going on :) I'm rather proud of it because I've actually got a plot to develop for once...also I think Alice may be a tiny bit jaded which I apologise for.

* * *

Bella couldn't move. She hadn't moved for an eternity. Her first thought had been a burst of panic that her limbs seemed to be carved from concrete. Her second thought was a mental scream that left her mental ears ringing. She wanted to scream aloud but her mouth had been locked shut. She wanted to open her eyes but the same story held true. Her body burned with hellish fire and her heart was beating against her ribcage with feverish intensity. Bella was sure that sooner or later the organ would splatter against her ribs and she found herself wishing that it would be sooner. At least then the pain would stop.

A small part of her mind was glad that she couldn't move; she was sure that if she could she would have been tearing at her flesh by now in a vain attempt to rip the pain from her body. And if she could speak she would no doubt have screamed herself hoarse by now and the Cullens would have been worried sick or as sick as vampires could be.

The part of her mind that was dedicated purely to the pain beat the sympathetic part back with a mental crowbar and suddenly Bella's thoughts could not protect her from the pain. Instead of the fire merely burning through her veins it was now blistering them closed and setting her organs aflame. Her mental scream now deafened her and her heart beat painfully fast.

For the first time in her short life Bella Swan wished for death.

/

Alice hadn't left her room since she had bitten Bella nearly three days ago. Carlisle came and went, to and from Bella and the hospital regularly to give the girl more painkillers. There was no way to know if they were actually working but Bella hadn't moved since the bite and that was nowhere near as reassuring as it should be.

There was a tiny voice in the back of Alice's head that whispered there were too many different kinds of venom in Bella's fragile body; James', Jane's, Edward's and her own. That it would be too much for Bella and she would go mad or die. Carlisle had quickly eased this particularly worry when she had voiced it to him.

It had changed tact at the dawn of the second day. Bella's heart had sped up considerably and reached dangerous speeds. Then she was terrified that her heart would burst before the change was completed.

Her visions were a particularly terrible form of torment, showing her agonizing images of Bella dying before she awoke. These visions were usually followed by images of a beautiful claret eyed brunette that she knew was Bella and the beauty was stained in blood. Whose blood Alice did not know but the sight made her dead heart skip in her chest.

Alice fixed her gaze on Bella's unmoving, and still human, body. She could almost be sleeping, or dead. Only the telltale rise and fall of her chest assuaged her worry that she had managed to somehow kill the other girl. But she knew that she would never truly believe until Bella's eyes opened again and she could hold her in her arms.  
She sighed and rested her head on her knees with her eyes clenched shut. The door opened slowly, a stubborn creak breaking the silence of her vigil. "Hey." A voice murmured and she heard a body slide down the wall to sit beside her on the floor. Alice didn't raise her head; she already knew that the visitor was Lucy Reynolds.

"What are you doing here?" She couldn't help the hint of hostility in her voice. She didn't believe that anyone outside of her family should see the girl during this time. Least of all a wolf Bella had only met days before.  
"Carlisle told me you were up here." Lucy's voice was hushed. The loudest sound in the room was Bella's erratic heartbeat. "Mike wanted to talk to him about your vision of the Volturi and I wanted to keep that promise of seeing you guys again. We left the others at La Push." Alice remained silent during the monologue and while she was grateful for the quiet company she wanted to scream at the wolf girl to leave her alone with Bella. To leave them both in peace. As if sensing Alice's thoughts Lucy stood. "I should leave you alone. I shouldn't be here." Alice realised then that her visions had stopped flickering past her eyes in the wolf's presence. She may have been able to see the girl with her power but she could not see _past _her.

"Stay." She whispered, suddenly craving the silence in her skull. The earthy stench of wolf was worth putting up with for the sweet oblivion of not knowing. Lucy slid back to the floor without a word, her mismatched eyes looking around the room with a curious glint embedded within them.

"Calla lilies." Lucy murmured and Alice finally raised her head to look at the vase of flowers in question. They were a deep purple that bordered on black. Alice loved the elegant shape of lilies and these particular ones she had deemed perfect for the occasion, used in marriage and funerals as symbols of passage into new life they were also toxic when ingested. Just like a vampire's bitter venom. Alice nodded but did not speak. Lucy turned to her with a soft smile. "Magnificent beauty right?"  
"Yeah." She was caught with by her own habit of picking flowers that were just right for the occasion. Lucy's smile twitched a touch wider.

"She'll be ok you know." Alice wanted to ask the werewolf how exactly she would know such a thing. She who had only known Bella for only a few hours, all told, but she also needed to hear what Lucy would say. Needed to hear reassurance from a stranger because family and lovers were honour bound to lie in order to assuage her fears. A stranger would have no such obligation. "She'll weather the pain because she's got you to come back to. She has a reason to live."

"How can you know that's enough?" Alice locked her dull gold eyes with mismatched green and blue. Lucy's smile faded.

"There are two kings on a battlefield. One has a wife and child in his kingdom. The other is completely alone." Alice frowned, not knowing where the wolf was heading with her story but let her continue. "In a fight to the death, who would win?"

"The man with a family?" Alice was confused; surely the battle would hinge on the king's fighting ability, not their marital status.

"The king with everything to lose. Everything to _protect _will always win against the lonely king without a cause because he has everything to fight for." A faint blush rose on Lucy's tan cheeks. "Just like Bella." Alice nodded then, understanding the story. It reminded her of Edward who had fought his own sister for Bella's love, even to the point of becoming everything he had always hated.

"Thank you." She murmured. Her fears were not totally gone but they were silenced for now. Lucy's words had given them something new to chew on instead of her family's whispered assurances and comforting sentences.

"It was something Sam told me once. I think I ruined the story a little but I should have gotten the gist of it." The werewolf smiled avoiding the vampire's eyes.

"Why are your eyes like that?" Alice changed the subject quickly, not needing Jasper's power to feel Lucy's embarrassment. She smiled at the topic switch.

"Heterochromia. It's genetic on our Dad's side." Silence fell on the room again and it took Alice a full minute to realise that it was a complete, perfect silence that was broken only by Lucy's heartbeat.

Bella's heart had stopped beating.

* * *

Thank you for reading guys and girls :)


	6. VI: A Swan's First Blood

It's late (or early depending on how you look at it) and I'm tired so please forgive any typos or errors I have made. It is likely that there are more than usual since this chapter _really _did not want to be torn from my brain to the computer...

* * *

"CARLISLE!" Alice screamed and her voice echoed throughout the Cullen house. Within a matter of seconds every single vampire in the house was at Bella's bedside. Lucy retreated to the hall without a word and apprehended Jacob as he sprinted up the stairs.

"Her heart stopped beating." She whispered but Alice could barely hear them as her father checked Bella's pulse. He shook his head and motioned for his family to back away a little. The Cullen's did as they were bidden and lined the walls of the room with Jacob stood in the doorway to finish Bella's audience.

Without warning Bella's eyes shot open and Alice couldn't restrain a squeak of surprise. She desperately wanted to move over to the newly awakened girl, to assure herself she was real but Carlisle had warned them all that newborn vampires were extremely volatile and Bella may not even know who they were in her need for fresh human blood. So she stood still and watched Bella awaken slowly. She almost it when the brunette stood, such was her speed.

Bella recognised her path was blocked and looked at each of the Cullens in turn, growling softly when her gaze fell on Jacob. Once the claret eyes fell on Alice however she felt her breath driven from her lungs. Her visions had done her no justice at all. Bella as a vampire was striking. Dazzling. Stunning. There simply weren't enough words in Alice's mind to describe Bella anymore. The newborn cocked her head to one side, still looking at Alice and the tiny Cullen felt her whole family tense to intercept Bella if she attacked. Alice herself didn't move. Newborn vampire or not she knew that Bella would never intentionally hurt her. Her traitorous mind instantly conjured up an echo of the heartache Bella had caused her in the past, the cracked wrist and the vision of her love, claret eyed and dripping in crimson blood. She gave herself a mental slap; Bella wouldn't hurt her.

"Bella?" She murmured and took a step closer to the newborn. She knew that Bella was experiencing blinding amounts of colour and was probably still trying to work out the correct levels of speed and strength to use. Most of all she knew that there was a burning thirst in the back of the girl's throat that begged to be satisfied but the fact that she hadn't simply brushed them all aside and gone to hunt was a good sign. She hoped.

Bella's arm shot out at lightening fast speed and grasped hold of Alice's collar. Before anyone could react she had pulled Alice to her pressing her lips to hers roughly. Alice had to bite back the soft growl in her chest as Bella's now sharp teeth nipped at her bottom lip very nearly drawing blood. Bella's hands were in her hair and Alice's arms wrapped securely around her waist before either of them realised they weren't actually alone. Carlisle coughed and Alice broke the kiss reluctantly. Bella looked at the Cullen patriarch sheepishly and slowly returned her hands to her sides.

"Welcome back." Alice grinned up at Bella losing herself in the fantastically red eyes. Bella looked down at her and a flicker of anger passed in her eyes. A pale hand reached up to run along the crack in Alice's jaw line. "Battle scars." She quipped taking Bella's hand. Almost instinctively the newborn looked over to Jasper amused face and gasped. There were paper-thin scars all over his face in some kind of twisted spider web.

"Aren't you thirsty?" Carlisle finally relaxed his stance and stepped a little closer to the pair. The burning in Bella's throat suddenly increased tenfold and she coughed in an attempt to relieve it.

"Very." Alice was struck by the changes in Bella's voice. The soft tone of the human was now a clear melody; at least it was to her. The doctor's lips twitched into an amused smile and Jacob finally entered the room. "Jake you stink." Bella cast him a glance before burying her face in Alice's shoulder to drown out the smell of wolf.

"Right back at you Bells." Jacob chuckled. "I guess you were right when you said you wouldn't hurt anyone." Bella moved away from Alice and swept the wolf into a tight hug.

"Told you." She muttered into his chest. He was extremely warm a lot warmer than she'd thought it almost felt as if he was burning her through her shirt. It was then that she remembered he was no warmer than usual. It was her that had gotten colder.

"Amazing." Carlisle murmured.

"She really is, trade sis?" Emmett smiled and dodged the slap sent his way by his wife. Alice giggled quietly.

"Bells? I kinda need to breathe." Jacob sounded half amused as the newborn let go as if he were actually burning her and took a deep, comical breath.

"Your control is amazing." Carlisle was astonished at the fact that Bella was still standing, in near perfect control of herself, and hadn't tried to escape the room in order to hunt the people of Forks. "Would you like to hunt?"  
"Of course." A smile spread across Bella's face and she took Alice's hand quickly. "Shall we go now?" She was desperate to rid herself of the irritation in her throat but Alice laughed.

"Not just yet. I want to show you something first." As if on cue Esme carried a full length mirror into the room and placed it just in front of Bella. The newborn scanned the reflected room for herself, curious to see what she looked like as a vampire. She could easily pick out the grinning faces of the Cullens and Jacob but the only other figure was an unfamiliar woman with deep brown hair and beautifully pale features and gleaming red eyes. Bella turned her head but could see no one else in the room. It was her. "Didn't think it was possible but you got more beautiful Bella." If she could have still blushed Bella knew she would have been the same shade as her eyes by now. There was almost no trace of her human self in her new face but the shape of her eyes was the same and that was enough she thought. "So. Shall we hunt?" Alice's voice brought her from her thoughts and she turned, smiling to the smaller vampire.

"Sure." Alice led her to the window and pulled it open. "Why the window?" She giggled leaping through the gap before answering Bella.

"You're a vampire Bella. Doors are optional." Alice spoke at normal volume but Bella and the others could hear her perfectly.  
"You'll be fine." Jasper murmured pushing a wave of calm her way. "There hasn't been any record of clumsy vampires just yet." Bella cursed him as she straddled the windowsill of the bedroom and, casting one look back inside, dropped to the floor below.

/

Alice and Bella ran through the forest at speeds Bella hadn't even considered possible only days ago, chasing the scent of lions. Alice had let Bella pick the scent out from the others in the forest, there were deer and bears around but to Bella the lions smelled best. Alice took to the trees in a single bound and, frowning lightly, Bella mimicked her. Seconds later they were both hopping from tree to tree easily, laughing like children until they found themselves directly above the mountain lion. They shared a short glance and Alice grinned gesturing to the animal with a flourish and the air of a waitress delivering a meal. Bella licked her lips and dropped from the tree, directly onto the animal.

Purely on instinct she sunk her ivory teeth into the beast's throat and began drawing on it's warm and somehow spicy blood. The burning in her throat began to subside a little. One of the lion's paws struck out at her, tearing a strip of her shirt away but Bella ignored it and continued to drink until the animal's thrashing subsided.

A new scent hit her nostrils. It was tangy and slightly fruity and made her mouth water. She looked up to Alice who was still in the tree, legs crossed and horror just beginning to creep into her eyes.

As Bella sped away in search of the scent that had attracted her so much more than that of the lion, Alice screamed her name.

* * *

I think I'll leave it there so I can get started on the actual plot in the next chapter...until next time. I'm going to go pass out now :)


	7. VII: Swings and Roundabouts

I think I'm doing quite well here I've actually managed a chapter every 24 hours-ish for seven chapters. That has _got _to be a record...

* * *

Alice smelt the mouth-watering scent milliseconds after Bella raised her head. Instantly she searched the future trying to see what could happen to the human that had wandered onto their hunting ground. All she could see was Bella covered in crimson blood and by the time her vision returned to her Bella was racing off through the trees. Alice yelled after her. She flew from the tree as if she had wings, hitting the ground running as she hurtled after Bella. She had to stop her. She couldn't let Bella kill someone. The other girl would never forgive herself. Putting on an extra burst of speed Alice finally drew level with Bella and threw herself at her in a tackle any football player would be proud of. The pair rolled through the grass until Alice hit a tree trunk bringing them crashing to a stop at the fringe of a clearing that an aging man sat in the centre of, cleaning his hunting rifle and whistling a senseless tune.

Bella snarled and made to stand but Alice rolled ignoring the sudden pain in her shoulder, straddling Bella's hips and pinning her to the ground with all the force she could muster. "You don't want to do this Bella. You don't want to hurt him." Lust darkened scarlet eyes darted around, looking for an escape as she struggled. Alice forced the newborn to look at her. "Bella."

"Alice." She murmured and her eyes cleared a little. "You're hurt." Alice cast a brief glance at her shoulder and quirked an eyebrow when saw a chunk of wood embedded in it. Silently she released one of Bella's shoulders and pulled the wood from her flesh, tossing it aside.

"I'm fine. Are you?" Bella nodded slowly her dark eyes now completely clear. She licked lion blood from her lips before pulling Alice down into a gentle kiss.

"Thank you." She breathed against the golden-eyed vampire's lips and Alice smiled, dropping another kiss onto her lover's cheek.

"Anytime Sweetheart." The smaller vampire grinned. A pointed cough sounded nearby and they both flew to their feet.

"Not interrupting anything am I ladies?" A smooth voice filled with dark intentions emanated from the shadows to their left. A man with dark hair and somehow darker eyes entered their line of sights with a cruel smile pulling at his thin lips. Dante. Alice tensed and instinctively placed herself between him and Bella. Even though Bella was stronger than her she still felt the desperate need to protect her. Dante laughed at the movement. "I'm sorry Alice, I was under the impression that chivalry was dead." Alice gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She wanted to kill that man. He was the one who had warped Edward's mind and loyalties. It was his fault her brother was dead and no matter what Edward had done he would always be her brother.

"Technically so am I." She replied coolly. Bella grasped the other girl's thin wrist in reassurance or maybe restraint. Alice suddenly realised that she was shaking.

"Touché." Dante clapped slowly and took a step closer. "Curious."  
"What is?" Bella asked sharply, her eyes flashing dangerously. She wasn't quite confident in her new strength but she knew that she was much stronger than Dante was. If she had to she would have no problems in tearing him into pieces. She drifted out of Alice's protection to stand beside the other girl, lacing their fingers with a half grin. Alice nodded understanding words Bella hadn't said; she didn't need to protect her, she could fight too.

"I wanted to see if my power would affect you Miss Swan and just as Sir Aro informed me it would not." Dante's dark eyes took on an interested glint. "I don't suppose you know why?" Alice bristled as the man's gaze fell on Bella and roved across her form, lingering on the tear in her shirt for a touch longer than Alice deemed cursory. "And may I say you make a ravishing vampire Isabella." The pixie-like vampire started forwards with a growl building in her throat only for Bella to hold her back with an outstretched arm.

"Is Aro coming here?" Alice mentally commended Bella on remaining calm, it was supposed to be newborns that had trouble controlled their emotions, mainly their rage but it seemed that were the brunette was concerned Alice had just as little control over herself.

"No." Both girls breathed silent sighs of relief. "He's already here and he knows everything." Dante snickered cruelly and this time it was Alice who was restraining Bella with all of the strength she had. "Don't forget ladies. Aro is watching." Before either of them could react Dante fled, his form blurring into the trees.

/

"The Volturi are here." Alice called as soon as the pair returned to the house. Instantly every occupant of the house was surrounding them including Jacob, Lucy and Michael. "We ran into Dante in the forest."  
"Dante?" The name fell from Lucy's lips, unbidden if the look on her face was anything to go by. "Dark hair? Dark eyes?" Alice nodded slowly a frown marring her delicate features as the wolf turned away from the group, pulling a mobile phone from her pocket and wandering out of sight and earshot as she dialled.

"He said that Aro was watching us. That he knows." Bella continued from where Alice had left off while golden eyes stared at the doorway Lucy had left through.

"Knows what? Why would he be here, now?" Rosalie's voice was clipped but everyone present knew her anger was aimed at the Volturi rather than the newborn before her.

"That Edward killed Jane." Carlisle muttered and everyone turned to him worry growing in their chests as they saw the grim look in his eyes. "Since Edward is dead we will all be held accountable for her death." Alice cursed under her breath, shooting Esme an apologetic glance almost immediately afterward as she realised that because Jane was not simply one of Aro's pawns, but his very favourite, the whole town was likely to suffer.

"Well crap." Emmett mumbled earning himself a slight glare from Esme. "Just as it all comes together it hits the fan." He turned away. "I'm going to bed. Rose?" The blonde rolled her eyes comical and followed her husband out of the room and up the stairs. Jasper and Esme left silently, each going their separate ways once they'd exited the room. Lucy rejoined them.

"I'll speak to Sam." Jacob shared a glance with Carlisle before he left.

"I'll work on Amber." Michael added quickly before following the boy outside.

Alice took one of Bella's hands in hers and led her away.

"We're not coming out of this alive are we?" Lucy whispered the only one left in the room with the Cullen patriarch. "And tell the truth."  
"This is going to be a nasty fight. And lives will be lost." His eyes gleamed with sadness and regret. She nodded slowly.

"Swings and roundabouts then really."

* * *

Ok hands up who honestly saw that coming besides me ;) They are definatley going to need a small army soon though. Now to find a piece of paper and figure out who's going to die while you guys hope your favourites aren't stricken off...


	8. VIII: Stealing a Kiss

Another chapter and that marks exactly a week of a chapter a day :)

* * *

Alice didn't stop leading Bella away until they'd reached a room that was very rarely used by anyone other than Carlisle since Edward's death, the library. It was a large room, the largest in the house, lined with wooden bookcases that were all filled completely from top to bottom. Bella gasped at the sight of the room, she'd never seen it. "You have a library. She breathed running a cool hand across the spines of one row of books.

"Quietest room in the house." Alice replied with a smile as she took a seat at a small desk watching Bella's scarlet eyes rove around the room. "Are you worried about the Volturi?" Bells swallowed silently but didn't turn to look at the other girl.

"Are you?" Alice tapped at the table with her dainty fingers, making up the tune as she went.

"Terrified." A half laugh escaped her lips when Bella whirled around to face her with a surprised look on her porcelain face. "Why are you surprised?"  
"I don't think I've ever seen you scared." The newborn murmured wandering over to the desk and leaning against it. "Not even with Edward."

"I'm usually scared whenever you're unconscious Bell." Alice gave a wry smile as Bella took hold of one of her hands and began to play, absent-mindedly with her fingers. A flash of warmth was born at the contact even though they were both cool skinned.  
Alice knew that the Volturi would not let any of them go voluntarily. They were very strict about their rules. Unless of course it was they themselves who wanted to break them. The Volturi had always put her in mind of a vampiric mafia with their familial ideals and their dictating ways. She hoped fervently to any higher powers that would listen to an undead girl that everyone would pull together to protect their home. They couldn't call Tanya from the Olympic coven for help because it wasn't fair to drag them into a war they had precious little chance of winning. Especially since Tanya and her coven had only just found their happiness. Alice sighed, resigned to the war but a fire in her heart screamed that they must win. For Bella.

"I'm scared too." The newborn's musical voice cracked a little and tears that she could no longer shed welled up in scarlet eyes. Alice wiped them away carefully ignoring the slight burn of venom on her finger from the tears.

"We'll be ok." She whispered standing to pull her into a hug. Bella buried her face in the crook of her neck. "We'll be ok."  
"How can you know?" Bella whimpered softly. The golden-eyed vampire stroked her lover's hair gently and a small smile pulled at her lips as she remembered Lucy's response to that very same question.  
"We have everything to fight for." She found herself hoping that Lucy and Sam's rule would apply here too because if it didn't she had no idea how they would hold on in the face of the Volturi's forces. "And everything to lose." The door to the library opened slowly and Alice twitched her head to the side to see the longhaired boy from Lucy's group. Michael.

"I'm sorry." His voice was deep and bell like and his almost completely green eyes twinkled with sadness and a hint of regret. "Everyone's downstairs." Alice released Bella slowly and let herself be led down the corridor all the way praying to a God she had given up on a long time ago that Michael had really meant everyone because that was who they needed.

/

Unfortunately it wasn't who they had. Bella's silent heart sank into her stomach at the ragtag army that had gathered in the Cullen's living room. There couldn't be more than fifteen of them. Bella looked around the room, hoping to see Sam's pack leaning against a wall somewhere but she was to be disappointed. The only werewolves in the room were Jacob, Leah, Seth, Lucy and Leon. Her heart sank further and now resided somewhere in her left foot. "Sam said he couldn't risk his family. They're going to try and make a break for it with as many humans as possible though." Jacob supplied the information sullenly to Carlisle who had unanimously been voted leader of their operation. Leah folded her arms.

"They won't make it." She muttered darkly and there was hint of fear in her dark eyes. "No way will they make it."

"Is Charlie with them?" Bella cut across the werewolf's mutterings concern fluttering in her chest, where her heart should be. Alice slipped a comforting arm around her shoulders. Jacob nodded and the concern flared before dying down; at least with a dozen werewolves her father would be safer than left at home. Alone. Her concern was replaced with guilt for leaving her father in this situation. She didn't even know if she'd have a father by the end of it or if even he'd have a daughter. She was pulled from her musings by a flurry of movement. Everyone within the room was filing out of the door and into the field behind the house. Bella cast Alice a questioning look.

"Jasper thinks we need to get used to each other. Learn how to fight together. Jake suggested sparring." There was a hint of distaste in her voice that Bella wasn't sure if it was aimed towards Jacob or the idea of sparring.

Once on the field they found Jacob, already in the form of a russet wolf squaring up to Jasper who had a half smirk half snarl on his porcelain features. Jasper sprang at Jacob in a blur of blonde hair and pale skin flinging them both to the floor, holding the wolf by the throat. Jacob roared and forced the vampire into a roll. Jasper threw the wolf away from him and jumped to his feet with a practiced ease. Bella gasped when Jacob hurled himself at Jasper, forcing them both back to the grass-covered ground and placed his teeth and the vampire's throat with a wolfy grin.  
Jacob changed back, breathing heavily and held out a hand to Jasper, pulling him to his feet. "Not bad Jake." Jasper laughed and received a playful punch in the arm from Jacob. He rubbed his pale arm in mock pain while Jacob put his shorts and shirt back on.

"Bite me leech." Jasper pushed him back gently.  
"Break it up boys." Alice smiled leading Bella into their patch of the grass. "Who's up next?" Jacob cast a glance around at their small troupe and pulled a face.

"You I think Shortie. And…" He passed his gaze across all of the people slowly, trying to gauge who would be a match for the tiny vampire. "Mike." The longhaired vampire hopped to his feet and stepped forwards with a goofy grin.  
"Why not a wolf?" Bella murmured as she watched Alice leave her to stand directly if front of the green-eyed boy.  
"We're not going to be fighting wolves Bells. And wolves are already perfectly geared to tear a leech…sorry vampire apart. It's in our nature." Bella nodded, finally understanding that her best friend was, by the laws of nature, supposed to be her mortal enemy. She moved her head to look at the sparring pair, unable to find an answer for Jacob. Michael was diving for Alice every few seconds but Alice was easily flitting out his way, golden eyes glazed over as vision after vision hit. Bella was worried; she'd learned a lot about Alice's visions recently and visions in swift succession always left Alice with a headache after the third. Alice had to be nearing the thirty mark as Michael lunged again and again. Bella wanted to cry out, make Alice end the bout already but she daren't. Alice's eyes cleared suddenly and Michael tackled her to the ground, pinning her arms and trapping her legs beneath his.

"Gotcha." He quipped softly, lowering his fangs to her neck. In a desperate burst of strength Alice flipped him over so it was her pinning him to the grass. She grinned and placed her teeth against his neck.

"Gotcha." She winked before hopping off of him and holding out a tiny hand to help him to his feet. They wandered off of the field together, laughing until they reached Jacob and Bella. Bella placed a kiss on Alice's cheek with a grin.

"Well done." Michael fixed his green eyes on her thoughtfully.

"If I won would I have gotten a kiss?" He asked with a slight smirk as Carlisle led Esme by the hand to the front of the watching wolf pack.

"No." Bella laughed quietly and Alice gave the boy a commiserating look as her arm snaked around the newborn's waist, pulling her closer.

"Earlier, when you were talking about Dante. Did he say what he wanted?" Michael's eyes darkened a touch when he mentioned the other man's name and curiosity pulled his lips into a half smile.

"He said he wanted to see if his power would work on me." Bella answered quietly, not seeing what it would have to do with anything. "It didn't." Michael's smile grew wider.

"Tell me Bella, do you have a power?" Bella shook her head. "You see I think you're a shield." Realisation sparked in Alice's mind it would make sense of everything. Why Edward could never read her mind, why Aro couldn't either and why Jane couldn't hurt her. It made perfect sense. "With a bit of work I believe we could extend the reach of your shield to cover say…a team of rebels?" Bella frowned.

"How?" Alice began to draw comforting circles on the girl's stomach with her thumb.

"I'll teach you." Michael shrugged as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.  
"Bells you're up." Jacob cut into their conversation with a regretful smile. Alice saw why when at the exact moment she saw Amber wandering onto the field opposite Bella.  
"My bet's on Bella." Michael muttered, nudging Alice slightly with his elbow. "Amber'll be too focused on watching the girl to actually fight her." Somehow Alice didn't find that to be a good thing.

Bella made the first move, slipping at blinding speeds towards Amber with her hand outstretched to grasp at her arms. Amber easily slipped through her arms and caught her by the wrist, pulling Bella flush against her body as she twisted the limb behind the newborns back.

"Come on Princess you can handle me." She whispered in Bella's ear, pulling her wrist roughly. On the sidelines Alice growled. Bella lurched forwards and somehow managed to flip the older girl over her back and onto the ground. If Amber had been human it would likely have broken her spine clean in two or at the very least cracked a few ribs. Bella moved to pin her still but Amber rolled out of the way quickly and kicked out to knock the newborn to the floor. Within seconds Amber was on her, pinning her. "Or maybe you can't." Bella snarled and flipped Amber to the floor, reversing the roles with very little effort and this time Amber couldn't break free. Instead a devilish glint was born in her eyes and quicker than even vampire eyes could follow Amber stole a quick kiss from the newborn. "You win." Bella recoiled quickly away from the other vampire and Amber got gracefully to her feet offering a hand to Bella. She didn't take it. Instead Bella wandered back to Alice and Amber followed. Lucy and Leon had joined their discussion during the duel and neither twin looked pleased. Amber just grinned as Alice placed her arms around Bella with a possessive glint in golden eyes and Bella laid her head on the shorter girl's shoulder.

"You should spend less time flirting with your opponent. You could have won." Leon muttered refusing to broach the topic of why the atmosphere had just dropped a few degrees in temperature. Lucy simply raised a hand and gave the vampire a stinging slap to the back of the head. While Jacob called the small meeting to an end.

* * *

Hm...that habit is really going to get Amber into trouble isn't it? Yeah it definately is. And what do we think the odds are of the Cullens actually winning this war? I vote rather small.


	9. IX: Town of Ghosts

And off we go again on another little jaunt through Forks :)

* * *

A rare sunny afternoon in Forks saw Bella in the field behind the Cullen's house, the sun throwing glittering rays of light from her skin as she faced Michael. His own face sparkled lightly in the sun and the light hit his eyes, turning them sea green. "Ok Bella. Again." She brushed a strand of dark hair from her face and cast an exasperated glance towards Alice who was sitting on the sidelines watching with rapt attention. Alice giggled to herself and Michael quirked an eyebrow. Bella sighed and focused on forcing a mental shield into existence around herself and Alice that should, in theory, stop Michael's power in its tracks.

Earlier, in the morning, before the sun had even come up, she had learned that Michael's power was the manipulation of thoughts. He had taken very little delight in explaining it to her and she could easily understand why; his power meant he could reach into another person's mind and twist their thoughts into something of his own creation. It could be a simple image or the suggestion that his target had heard a noise that hadn't existed but it could also be a burning desire to kill someone or even a suggestion of exactly how to go about it. The graphic detail of his explanation had sent a chill running down her spine.

A sudden image of Alice with a puppy sat on her head swam into her mind. "Too far I think you caught me inside that time." Bella gave a frustrated groan that was swiftly followed by a giggle.

"Alice and a puppy? Really?" Michael shrugged, a grin pulling at his lips.

"It was all I could think of at the time." There was the barest hint of a defensive tone in his voice but his greenish eyes glinted with mischief.

"Me or the puppy?" Alice smirked a glint taking up residence in her golden eyes that matched Michael's perfectly. Bella coughed. "Sorry Sweetheart." Alice grinned and sent a playful wink her way. "I'll leave you guys to work." She got to her feet gracefully and all but danced back into the Cullen house.

Inside Jacob was sitting on the kitchen counter munching on an apple. Esme had filled their unused kitchen with food after Carlisle had insisted that the wolves stay with them whilst they prepared for the upcoming battle. "Hey Jake." She smiled hopping up onto the counter to sit beside him and swinging her legs, child-like.

"Hey." Jacob finished his apple in two large bites and tossed the core into the bin on the other side of the room. "How's Bell holding up?" Alice chuckled to herself, letting her gaze flicker over the wolf's shoulder to look at the girl in question through the window.

"She's frustrated. She can't quite get the distance right." Jacob nodded turning his head to look at Bella as well. She pulled a face as Michael said something and seconds later burst into a bout of laughter. "She'll get it soon enough." Alice sounded surer than she felt but she had faith in her Bella. She knew that Bella would come through because that's what Bella did; she came through when people needed her. Alice couldn't help but flash back to that awful moment months ago when Edward had Jacob pinned and she could barely move and Bella had cut herself to distract her fiancé. Bella always came through for them, even if it was detrimental to her own health.

"Earth to Alice?" Jacob was waving a hand in front of her face, she blinked whiskey coloured eyes and the boy swam back into focus. "Enjoying the view were we?" His dark eyes darted back to Bella quickly and he smirked at Alice. She shrugged.

"I am allowed to." Jacob shook his head slowly eyes glimmering with unsaid jokes and jabs. "What were you saying?"  
"I was saying that we should go do recon with the others. Leah and Seth are out in the forest. Lucy and Leon are milling around somewhere or other. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me." Carlisle had enforced a 'buddy system' for whenever someone left the safety of what was quickly becoming their base camp for the duration of the war effort.

Carlisle and Esme had gone out hunting.

Rosalie and Emmett were still in there room and sometimes Alice cursed her enhanced hearing, she really did.

No one really knew where Amber had disappeared to which was a point of worry for Alice even though she didn't particularly like the other vampire.

And Jasper was holed up in the library poring over various tactical formats that may or may not be useful. Alice cursed his military brain sometimes too. She didn't believe that what the Volturi would do could be predicted, no matter how much research her soon-to-be-ex-husband did. She intended on pulling him, by force if necessary, from the books and Jacob had provided the perfect excuse.  
"Sure Jake. I'm going to go drag Jazz away from his books, get him out for a while." Jacob shrugged, dropping from the counter.

"Meet you out front Shorts."

/

Alice and Jasper wandered into the town from the forest, flanking a car-sized russet furred wolf. Jacob's eyes seemed far away and Alice would have been willing to bet, even without her visions that he was communicating with the rest of his pack. The wolf's infinitely dark eyes shot wide suddenly and that was the first sign for the vampires that something was very, very wrong. The russet fur receded at an alarming rate and soon Jacob was crouched on the ground, his face pulled in a rarely seen serious grimace. "Jake what's wrong?" Alice dropped to her knees at his side, putting one hand against his shoulder in a comforting gesture, finding that the excessive heat of his skin no longer bothered her at all.

"Lucy and Leon are in the town. It's empty." Alice shared a frown with Jasper; Forks couldn't be empty. Surely the wolves had taken some of the civilians when they'd fled but there was absolutely no way they could guard over three thousand of them. No way at all.

"Are they sure?" Jasper's scepticism was answered with a simple glare from Jacob. Alice rolled her eyes, of course they were sure; Jacob could read their minds as easily as he could read his own. "Where could they have gone?"  
"I don't know but they're going to meet us back at the house." Jacob's form blurred for a second as his shape changed back into the wolfen form he seemed to prefer to his humanoid one. With barely a look to his companions he took off back through the trees. Jasper and Alice shared a glance before chasing him, two pale blurs against the trees.

They practically flew back to the house, their feet skidding in the gravel of the Cullen's driveway. Amber arrived next with a bulging rucksack slung across one shoulder.  
"Where did you go?" Alice asked unable to restrain the question. The other girl had completely ignored the buddy system and could've been captured or killed for all the others had known.

"Hospital. I figured since the wolves are actually alive we might need bandages and stuff." Amber placed the rucksack onto the driveway and pulled it partially open to reveal bandages, stitches, and even some painkillers. Jacob quirked an eyebrow in amusement.

"We heal fast. But thanks." Amber gave a laugh tinged dark as her eyes flashed. The once brilliant blue orbs had been flooded with yellow since her arrival in Forks and were now a strange shade of green.

"You don't heal fast enough when you need to change however many times a die. If you're injured on top of that you won't be able to heal much faster than a normal human." Amber swung the bag back over her shoulder with an air of authority. Alice found a smile pulling at her lips and a quick glance at Jasper told her that he too sported a bemused grin.

"She's right Jake." Leon's voice told him as the twin werewolves paced up the driveway, still pulling their shirts on. "It's not fun trying to change with a gaping wound either so I hope you picked up stitches Amber." The vampire saluted sarcastically.  
"Of course. I remember your complaints last time." She shared a conspiratorial smile with Lucy. "Cry baby."  
"The town's deserted?" Alice broke into their conversation, needing to know one way or another the state of her home. Jasper sent a wave of serenity her way but she shrugged it off, her frustration gave her urgency and urgency was always a good thing to have in a war.  
"Completely abandoned." Lucy confirmed and there was a troubled gleam in her mismatched eyes. "Everywhere's empty."  
"Including the hospital." Amber supplied softly and Alice was surprised to catch the same troubled sheen in the vampire's eyes too. "No doctors, no patients."

"Same with the police station." Leah appeared at the fringe of their group, her little brother standing beside her. "What's going on?"  
"I wish I knew." Jacob shook his head ruffling Seth's hair fondly and Alice suddenly realised that their army consisted mainly of children and that thought made her feel distinctly ill. Seth looked up at his alpha understanding in his deep brown eyes.  
"They're separating us Jake. It's a siege."

* * *

Aw Seth's so sweet :) and war prep is boring...also I have no idea where all those people could have gone by the way it just seemed like a good idea while I was typing. Go with it :P


	10. X: A Final Night of Freedom

I'm sorry there wasn't a chapter yesterday but I had an amazing idea for an original story that I had to get down and then my sugar high crashed :\ but oh well I have a chapter for you now...

* * *

In the billowing silence that followed Seth's announcement Bella came running from the house and pulled Alice straight into a tight hug. "I did it!" She laughed into the shorter girl's shoulder. "The shield it worked." Alice couldn't help but smile as she hugged Bella back but the newborn could see the worry on the rest of the group's faces. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" Bella slipped out of Alice's arms slowly and with more than a little reluctance. The other girl's proximity always made her feel safe, no matter what else was going on around them.

"Are Carlisle and Esme home yet?" Jasper saved Alice answering the newborn, he could feel the indecision of what to say rolling from her and it still pained him to see her in distress. Bella nodded.

"Something did happen didn't it? Is it the Volturi?" Alice took hold of her elbow gently and began to lead the troupe inside the house. The only house that was currently occupied in the whole town. A sick feeling was born in the pit of her stomach when she thought of what could have happened to the citizens of Forks.

They could have been taken to feed the Volturi forces or even to swell them a little further but she couldn't believe that explanation; it would draw too much attention to them and no one would miss a whole town of people just disappearing. Would they? "Alice tell me what's going on." There was a hint of anger in Bella's voice that was answered with a twinge of anger in her heart. She quashed the feeling as quickly as she could anger had no place in a conversation with Bella. Ever.  
"Carlisle needs to hear this too Love. I'm sorry." She pulled the girl upstairs determinedly ignoring the fact that many of their group remained at the foot of the stairs. Only Leon and Jacob followed them up to Carlisle's study.

Alice didn't bother knocking on her pseudo-father's door, which was the first sign to him that something was wrong. His second tip off to his daughter's low mood was the dark gleam in her honey coloured eyes. It was only present when something was going seriously wrong.  
"Alice." Carlisle set his voice a soothing tone and he saw Alice relax slightly. It pleased him to know that he could read his children's moods so well. He smiled. "How can I help?" He didn't miss the movement as the pixie-like girl took hold of Bella's hand nor as the newborn's thumb began to stroke comforting circles on the back of Alice's hand. He was happy for the pair and proud that they had both overcome the obstacles in the way of their relationship.

"The people are gone." Jacob stepped forwards to stand beside Alice. Carlisle liked the boy despite his being a werewolf; he had been a good friend to his daughter and Bella too. He almost thought of Jacob as one of his own so it was with patience and respect that he questioned the boy further.

"Which people and gone where?" The blonde wolf who had remained beside the door to his office rolled his eyes slightly and leaned back on the door seemingly ready for a long wait. Carlisle recognised that boy, Leon, he looked a lot like the girl wolf who had been in Bella's room on the day of her transformation, and they had the same dual coloured eyes.

"The humans. All of them. Forks is empty Carlisle." Alice answered for Jacob with an earnest tone to her usual cheerful voice and Bella's breathing hitched in her throat. It was then that Carlisle knew the extent of the predicament his family was in.

He couldn't blame Edward for the problems even though it was him that had killed Jane.

He couldn't blame Bella or Alice even though it was they who had broken his son's heart and driven him to Jane in the first place.

Carlisle Cullen could find no one to blame and even though his father had been a priest he found that he could not even see it as God's will.

He nodded slowly, resigned to the fact that by the end of the week he would probably have lost another of his children or possibly his wife. He clenched his fists at his sides; he was not going to allow Aro to destroy his family any further.

"Ok. We must assume that Aro has taken them as the first move. We make the second tomorrow." Carlisle detested war but his family was threatened and he would be damned if he didn't at least put up a respectable fight to keep them safe.

"Sir?" Alice looked at him with concerned eyes and he barely caught her grip on Bella's hand tighten slightly. Guilt blossomed in his heart at turning the girls to soldiers but he had no choice. They could not run, knew they would not. And they could not negotiate; Aro would simply kill them. They had to fight.

"Tomorrow." He saw the same realisation in Jacob's eyes as the wolf turned away and left the office, the girls and the blonde boy behind him.

Doctor Carlisle Cullen sat back at his desk and laid his head in his hands, hoping to anything that could be listening to him that he'd made the right decision and praying that his children would survive.

Alice followed Bella back to her room in a daze that she could only usually reach when she was in the throes of a vision. The war would begin in the morning. People would die, she didn't need her visions to tell her that. The sick feeling in her stomach had grown to a physical pain that could not be ignored. "Are you ok?" Bella murmured sitting across from Alice on the bed. It had only been just over a day since she'd been turned into a vampire but it already felt like an eternity.

"No. I'm terrified I'm going to lose you." Alice murmured wringing her hands in her lap. Her usual unflappable confidence was long gone with the citizens of her town and there seemed to be nothing she could do to get it back.

"I'm not going anywhere." Bella whispered scooting closer to take both of Alice's hands in her own. "I'm not going anywhere. Ever." Alice smiled softly desperately wanting to believe her and finding she was unable to. Bella placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "I mean it Alice. I won't let them separate us." This time Alice felt her heart begin to believe beating away her brain's doubts. The next kiss was deeper and all of Alice's panic for tomorrow fled her mind as her back hit the mattress.

/

Alice and Bella stood in the forest the next day, hand in hand and flanked by wolves and the other Cullens. Carlisle had gotten back only that morning with his suit torn and dirty. He had been to see where the Volturi had made camp and found that they did not have any of the civilians from Forks imprisoned or among their army.

Everyone of their small number had nervousness rolling off of them in waves. Alice found herself pitying Jasper who was trying his very best to send them all calm and courage but the pain in his eyes worried her.  
The wolves seemed ready she mused silently.

Jacob stood at their head, russet fur shifting in the light breeze and dark eyes fixed on the clearing ahead.

Lucy and Leon flanked him, sat on the leaf-strewn floor appearing to be holding a silent conversation with their eyes.

Amber knelt with them one hand buried in the fur on top of each twin's head.

Leah stood behind the trio with Seth, only slightly smaller than her, close by.  
She could hear Emmett forcing jokes from his lips in an attempt to keep the mood light, Rose however was attempting to ignore him even with the tiny smile pulling at her golden eyes.

Jasper stood on Alice's other side, holding her other hand and was every inch the classic hero of a story. She felt a wave of love towards him flow from her heart and a corresponding smile from him told her he'd felt it.

Bella was scarily calm even though her hand was shaking in Alice's grip and a strained smile was on her lips. Alice desperately wanted to kiss the painful grimace away but knew she couldn't. Not so close to the battle for their very lives. Not here.

Carlisle and Esme were stood at the very front of their pitiful ragtag army, not touching physically but every now and then one of them would look at the other and give a soft, saddened smile.

None of the group were talking to each other and some were simply lost in their own thoughts and fears but Alice knew they stood together and nothing was going to sway them from that.

Not even the sight of the black cloaked Volturi beginning to make their way across Edward's clearing in front of them.

* * *

*enter creepy thriller music here* thank you for reading and of course reviewing **lynettecullen **yours especially made me giggle :)


	11. XI: The Peasants Are Revolting

Borrowing a friend's laptop to bring the update I spent last night typing up :)

* * *

Alice's eyes narrowed when the first of the Volturi reached their side of the clearing. Felix, Caius, Heidi, Dante, an unknown redhead and Alec, flanked an unsmiling Aro. Jane's twin's face was twisted in a snarl and Alice could already hear the noise rattling in the boy's chest. Aro chuckled to himself a venomous smile pulling at his thin lips. "Carlisle." His cracked voice should have been lost in the wind but it seemed that even nature knew not to face Aro.

"Aro." The golden-eyed doctor forced a smile of his own to his old friend. Alice found herself admiring her father's calm front. She for one wouldn't be able to look Aro in his deep crimson eyes and smile. Not unless his head was on an extended vacation from his neck at any rate. She let her eyes stray to the rest of the advance Volturi guard.  
Alec was glaring daggers at the whole Cullen family and his upper lip curled in distaste when his gaze fell on Alice and Bella.  
Heidi appeared neutral but Alice knew she was targeting the weakest links in the group. She knew that Heidi would use that weak link to take them all out of the equation. She also knew that they had no weak link. Heidi would no doubt target Seth and Leah would have Heidi in pieces before she even got within striking distance. Alice gave the cloaked woman a saccharine sweet smile.

Felix was staring blankly ahead with a small smile as he watched the exchange between the two leaders of the war.

Caius merely looked bored and kept cracking the knuckles of his spindly old hands.

Dante's eyes were fixed solely on Bella and the only time they moved was to graze across the newborn's body with a faint grin. Alice's grip tightened on Bella's hand and she fought the urge to dive across the forest that separated the groups and tear the vampire's throat out.

And the unknown redhead only had eyes for Amber and the same appeared to hold true for the green-eyed vampire. Alice watched the unknown woman's ruby lips move at vampiric speeds to speak silently to Amber. 'Hello Darling' Alice quirked an eyebrow and tuned her ears back into the conversation between Carlisle and Aro.  
"I am sorry to hear that Carlisle." Aro murmured stepping away from the vegetarian and there appeared to be real remorse on his pale face as he and his guard returned to the fringes of the clearing. "I really am sorry."  
"Me too." Carlisle whispered softly as flames began to be visible through the trees. Hundreds of ruby-eyed vampires wearing black cloaks were marching through the forest towards them and some of them carried burning torches even thought it was daylight. A chill raced down Alice's spine at the sight of the fire. They intended to burn them as they fell.

The very second Aro's face twisted into a sneer and his lip curled to reveal ivory fangs each and every member of the Cullen's army dove forwards.

Carlisle and Esme dived onto Aro and his guard with Emmett and Rosalie right behind them.

The wolves dispersed into the crowd of vampires tearing into them with very little effort.

Alice and Bella flew forwards as one into the fray.

Carlisle had planned all night for the moment the war would break out and the very second his hands fell onto Aro he was glad he had worn gloves. The last thing he needed was for the ancient vampire to know his every move before he made it. Aro smiled cruelly as his fist crashed into Carlisle's windpipe, collapsing it on impact. Before the older man could recover his guard the doctor returned a blow that shattered Aro's shoulder. "Oh I wish Marcus was here to see this. He always liked you." Aro snickered even through the pain. Carlisle hit him again.

Beside the brawling men Esme had Caius' arms pinned behind his back and her teeth buried in his cold arm. The ancient vampire jerked himself away and the Cullen matriarch was left with a mouthful of dead flesh. She spat it to the side and was tackled to the floor as Caius began to rain blows onto her face.

Emmett had easily taken Alec to the ground but the sense depriving fog flooding from the boy was making it hard for him to land even a single hit. More often than not his huge fists were buried in the dirt.

Rosalie's face was spider-webbed in tiny cracks as Heidi landed blow after blow but her rosy lips were still curled into a smile. In a single movement she lurched upwards and sank her teeth into her foe's throat until she broke the cold jugular and tore it out. Heidi screamed and Rosalie jerked her head to the side, tearing the other girl's head off completely. The blonde stood gracefully and brushed sludgy blood from her clothes before plucking a torch from a Volturi foot soldier and dropping it onto Heidi. She then lunged for the foot soldier.

Jasper had placed himself firmly in the centre of the oncoming army picking racing vampires from the rush and using their own momentum to force them into one of their comrades and knock them both out of the race before setting on them and tearing them to pieces. He was in his element.

Jacob leapt at the nearest vampire and sunk his teeth into his torso, giving a barking laugh at the sheer irony when, as the body crumpled, the torch in the vampire's hand set the vampire on fire. The next vampire that was caught in his jaws was torn in two and dropped onto the flaming corpse.

Lucy and Leon had planted themselves at the beginning of the rush, surrounded by vampires and plucking soldiers from the fight as they raced past. It didn't take long for the Volturi to see the pile of limbs around the blonde wolves and they instantly flooded towards them. They had nowhere to go, the fallen limbs had hemmed them in so they set to tearing at the new opponents, ignoring the burn of venom as teeth broke their skin.

Leah and Seth were racing through the flood of Volturi, slipping through their grasping arms easily until they reached the other side. From there they began to pick off the last of the soldiers, attempting to thin their numbers. A group of carmine-eyed men surrounded Seth and set to pounding their fists into his small body. Leah roared and jumped into the centre to defend her brother, sending limbs flying.

Amber had immediately flitted towards the redhead from Aro's guard. "Harmony." She muttered through gritted teeth. The redhead was the reason she had been exiled from Volterra. She was also her ex-girlfriend. Their relationship had led to a lovesick young vampire, Harmony's boyfriend challenging Amber to a dual. Amber had won and as she had killed a vampire and that was illegal in the eyes of the Volturi, she had been banished.

"Amber, how've you been sugar?" They circled each other, ignoring the roars and battle cries that echoed around them and the splattering noise that dead blood made as it made contact with fallen leaves. Amber shrugged; darting forwards quicker than the eye could follow. Harmony caught her arm easily and pushed her against a tree, crimson eyes flashing dangerously. Amber pulled Harmony into a searing kiss that the brunette couldn't help but respond to. The redhead smiled, not breaking the kiss as one hand moved to caress Amber's face. "You killed him." She whispered against Amber's lips and in one swift movement ripped her head from her delicate neck, watching it roll in the grass with a small smile.

Lucy roared as Amber's head parted company with her neck. She barrelled through the vampires cutting them down with a frenzied ease but being set upon by a group before she even got there.

Alice was surrounded almost instantly by a group of vampires that smiled lecherously down at her. She gave them an answering smile, her confidence was well and truly back and as one lunged forwards to grab at her arm she grasped his wrist and twisted his entire arm from his body, separating it at the shoulder. The other vampires dove at her as one, she pirouetted easily dodging their heavy-handed attempts at attacking her. It didn't take her long to beat them back. She looked down at her hand once she had and under the foreign blood she saw that her right ring finger had been lost in the battle. "Ow." She quipped, only then feeling the pain and the acidic burning of venom.

Bella was squaring up to Dante and if she'd still been human she knew she would have been blushing furiously under his gaze. "You should switch sides Bella." He murmured dodging one of her lunges effortlessly, forcing her into a man that appeared to be newly changed. She dispatched with the stranger in a short minute and turned back to the man with the endlessly dark eyes.

"Make me." She sneered, knowing he couldn't thanks to her shield and it pleased her when his annoying smirk faltered.  
"I could get your girlfriend to come with you." Rage blistered her heart and Bella knew then the anger that other newborns must have felt all the time. Blind and mindless fury. How dare he threaten Alice? It raged and she found herself agreeing. She finally landed a hit, gouging a deep tear into his abdomen. Dante yelled his pain and stared at the blood on her hands in wonder.

"Ravishing." He whispered before turning tail and darting into the trees. Bella didn't debate the wisdom of following him, nor did she stop to look back, her anger would let her do neither. She simply raced after him.

Alice saw Dante run and Bella follow him. Horror and fear clutched at her heart and she tossed her opponent to the side, into one of the many small fires that had broken out across the battlefield and made to pursue them. The redhead from Aro's guard flitted into her path with a cruel smile. "Now now little girl. No leaving the party early." She all but sang. The redhead didn't see the blonde wolf, Alice couldn't tell if it was Lucy or Leon, rear up behind her until she was tackled to the ground. Blonde fur was matted with deep red blood but the mismatched eyes were bright as they locked onto Alice with a message clear in them. Go. Alice nodded and fled into the trees without looking back; hearing the wolf howl as it was tossed aside was enough to raise a cringe on her porcelain face.

Dante skidded to at the base of the Olympic mountain range and turned to face Bella as she hurled herself at him. She wrapped a pale hand around his throat, pinning him to the cliff face and tightening her grip until the bones in his neck began to crack. His dark eyes bulged but the infernal smirk was still on his lips. "Hello there Alice." Bella swore under her breath as Dante's dark eyes flashed with power. It was Alice's arms that pulled her from the man and it was Alice's fists that connected with her body as she was knocked to the floor. Golden eyes regarded her sadly and begged her to fight back but Bella couldn't. She couldn't hurt Alice. A scream tore itself from her throat.

The scream was heard at the main battle and almost every Cullen raised their heads from their opponent's necks and leaves began to rain from their homes on trees. Alec's power failed completely and Emmett found he could easily dispatch with the shocked boy.

Aro's mind reading was suddenly and inexplicably blocked.

Each and every Volturi vampire stopped startled for a split second before carrying on the battle with a frightening intensity.  
It was a howl that broke the fighting next.

A jet-black wolf prowled along the back line of the Volturi ranks plucking vampires from the fight at his leisure. The other two-dozen wolves behind Sam leapt over his head and began to tear into the vampires that had stained their turf with their presence with wild abandon.  
For the first time in nearly a half hour the tide began to turn in favour of the Cullens.

* * *

Well the cliffhanger's not as bad as it was going to be :P and I think that went rather well actually considering how badly they were outnumbered.


	12. XII: What Should a Child Know of Death?

Wow this was hard to write simply because it made me feel incredibly guilty towards these guys...and yay the return of Tobias Correll :)

* * *

The forest that surrounded the small town of Forks, Washington was a mess. Ruby blood and ivory flesh stained the leaf-strewn floor and small fires flickered sullenly in the failing daylight. Tobias Correll picked his way through the still cloaked remains of the Volturi army. "You were right." Sam's voice told him from his side. It was odd; he hadn't even known that there were still werewolves in Forks these days so when he'd found them it had been a pleasant surprise for the boy. There were others, scarred from their cavalry rush helping with the clean up.

"I usually am where the Volturi are concerned." He replied with a faint smile, recognising one of the cloak clasps as belonging to Aro himself and kicking it to the side.

"I meant to bring us here." Toby had caught the wolf pack on their way out of town with a small group of civilians, trying to save them from the war. Toby himself had already dealt with the town by telling the human's council there was an unexploded war bomb in the forest and that Forks must be evacuated quickly. The humans had moved surprisingly quickly and without asking questions too, which he had found convenient.

On his own escape he had caught sight of the Cullens waiting for the battle. It had hurt him to flee but he'd done it knowing that they couldn't survive but the wolf pack. The wolf pack had been exactly what the Cullens needed and Toby had sent them to help. "You did good kid." Sam clapped him on the shoulder and he loaded another vampire's corpse onto the nearest fire.

"Did you find Leon?" A small voice asked the alpha and Toby felt his heart twist as the albino girl that had been with the wolves came sliding down the small pile. Sam shook his head. "Lucy?" Another shake. Tears welled up in the child's eyes, spilling onto her cheeks.

"Someone say my name?" The trio turned quickly to see a blonde boy leaning heavily on a tree, holding a shattered arm to his chest. A Volturi cloak was tied haphazardly around his waist, obviously one handedly, and he was daubed in splashes of dark blood but there was still a faint smile on his face. Toby guessed that he was Leon and a smile of his own tugged at his lips as the child raced over the treacherous ground and pulled him into a tight hug. Leon cringed in pain but hugged her back anyway. Sam gave a sigh of relief. "We got a body count yet?"  
"Most of the Volturi went down. Only a few got away, I'd say we missed thirty or so." Sam gave the answer carefully, bending to pick another corpse into his arms and throwing it unceremoniously into the flames.

"And ours?" Toby looked between the two wolves, one battle scarred with tears in his eyes and the other bloodied with a child helping him stand.

"Go back to the Cullen house. I'm sending the survivors back as I find them." Sam averted his dark eyes. The blonde wolf nodded sadly and turned away from the battlefield. The girl turned with him, his good arm wrapped around her shoulders even though she was shorter than him, and acted as a crutch as he limped away.

/

Alice's bruised eyelids flickered open to reveal jet-black irises that rendered her pupils invisible. The room was too bright and she couldn't see much bar the bright light but she had to find Bella. The one thing her mind was sure of was that she needed to find Bella. She wasn't sure if she was alive, dead or even where she was. But her heart needed Bella. Her knuckles could still remember the feel of the other girl's granite skin as they pounded into her flesh. Her ears could still remember the cracking of bone and her eyes the sight of dark blood mingling with venomous tears. She stood and began to stagger away, using her hands to find her way. "Alice?" A warm voice called and cold hands stopped her progress. She blinked and found she could see slightly better, it was Esme. Cracks spider webbed across her face but she was smiling and she pulled the girl into a hug. "I'm so glad you're ok." Alice hugged her pseudo-mother back carefully and only then noticed that she was still missing her right ring finger. It was a curious sensation to be missing it because she was sure she could still feel it attached to her hand.

"How're the others?" She felt Esme tense and the older vampire pulled away a sad gleam in her golden eyes. "Esme?"  
"Jacob's entire left side was crushed but he's healing. He'll be ok. Jasper was torn to ribbons and your father's still unconscious." Esme stopped speaking and Alice wanted to shake her to get her to keep talking. They couldn't be the only survivors. They just couldn't be. But they had been vastly outnumbered, the traitorous voice in her brain whispered. The others could easily be dead. Bella could easily be dead.

"Bella?" Alice's voice cracked on the single word and she couldn't help the single glance down at her cracked knuckles. She flexed her hands to rid herself of the feel of Bella's cheek breaking under them. Esme shook her head and Alice swore the earth shook slightly. Her knees buckled but Esme caught her easily and cradled her in her arms.

"Emmett's with Sam. They're looking for any signs of the others." Alice's mind questioned why Emmett seemed perfectly fine when Bella was lost. It was a bitter voice and it made Alice feel slightly sick.

Downstairs she heard the door swing open, hope flashed in her heart and she tore herself away from Esme and raced down the stairs only to see Leon shuffle inside, Ruby holding onto his elbow. Alice stopped suddenly and shared a sad smile with the man. Silently she took his arm from Ruby and half-carried him to the sofa.  
When Esme found them she was sat beside him and Ruby was sat in his lap dabbing at the blood on his face with a tissue. "Who are we still missing?" The blonde wolf's voice had lost its usual exuberance and Alice found she knew exactly how he felt. Esme sighed, setting a box full of medical supplies on the floor as she knelt before the boy, ushering Ruby off of his lap with a smile.

"Rosalie, Lucy, Amber, Michael, Leah, Seth and Bella." Esme murmured, beginning to tie Leon a sling. Alice's world shook again. A loss of seven was good considering what they had been up against but Seth had only been a child and Bella was…Bella was everything. Alice now sympathized completely with Edward. She got to her feet, ignoring the concerned looks when she swayed slightly.

"I'm going to help look." She announced making for the door. Esme flitted from the floor to block her path. Alice locked her eyes with Esme's stern gaze. "I need to know, one way or the other and I can't just sit here. I can't." Tears burned in her eyes and Esme finally relented, returning to Leon.

"Be careful." Alice focused on simply putting one foot in front of the other as she fled her home. It was nearly completely dark outside and she thanked her enhanced vision it would mean she wouldn't have to give up the search when the light failed completely. It wasn't until she reached their battlefield that she saw that neither would anyone else.  
The torches that the Volturi had brought with them had been used to light impromptu funeral pyres in the battle and now those pyres were piled high and were burning well. Her stomach roiled when she recognised Alec's face smouldering in the orange flames. She looked away.

"Alice." Emmett jogged over to her, concern in his darkened eyes. "Are you ok?" She could feel the cracks in her skin and the dried blood that caked her body, even the loss of her finger now but she was determined. Thunder rolled in the distance as if it was agreeing with her choice.

"I'm fine. I need to help." He nodded and she noticed the intense worry in his eyes. "Any luck?" Emmett looked at the ground sadly.

"No." A cry from the other side of the clearing caught their attention and nearly started both of their hearts.  
"Over here!" The two vampires sprinted to where Quil was leaning over a pile of bodies; tears rolling freely down his tanned face. Sam looked down and quickly looked away one hand over his mouth. Leah Clearwater had been mauled. Her grey fur lay around her human body and there was almost no flesh left on her bones. Only enough to identify her. Just to the side of her lay Seth, his body heaving as he cried.

Alice swallowed. He was just a child; he shouldn't know anything even like what he had seen. She firmly believed that a child should know nothing of war, of death.

Sam climbed down to the boy and pulled him into his arms, letting him cry as he carried him away. Seth screamed for his sister and Quil picked the dead girl up before following Sam. Alice's heart wept silently. Emmett cleared is throat.

They wandered the battlefield carefully, desperately searching for survivors. Sometimes a limb would fall and hope would burn back to life only for it to be a Volturi limb. The owner would then be killed and thrown on the nearest fire. A flash of blonde hair caught Emmett's eye and he dropped to his knees to unearth it. Soon the pair could see Rosalie's porcelain face smeared in blood.

Emmett howled brokenly and the familiar golden eyes opened. A pale hand rose to run along the man's face and wonderment covered the pain as he cradled his wife to his chest, tears of venom falling down his cheeks. Alice could just hear 'I loves you' whispered repeatedly as she turned away.

The moon had risen behind heavy clouds but they were still missing people. Amber had been found nigh on an hour ago, still piecing herself together and still missing her left hand. Most of the Volturi soldiers had been burned and patches of grass and dirt were now visible on the battlegrounds. Finally Alice wandered away from the clearing, knowing that she needed to check the place Dante had lured her and Bella to. Alice had somehow crawled back to the original battle but the thought that Bella had been too weak to, physically hurt her. Especially knowing that she had been the one to hurt her.

Sam had been trying to send her home for hours, saying she needed to heal herself instead of making herself worse helping them. That they could manage the search without her. She knew she still looked severely hurt but many of her injuries had healed already, it was only the more serious ones that remained and they weren't as bad as they had been. So even with a fuzzy head she had continued to search.

As she reached the foot of the Olympic mountains she noticed that the ground was stained with blood. Searching frantically she finally saw Dante or what remained of him slumped against the cliff face with that infernal smirk still on his face. She felt like screaming at him, forcing him back to life so he could tell her where Bella was. It wasn't until she nearly tripped that Alice saw the other body.

The pixie-like vampire fell to her knees next to Bella's unmoving form, hearing her heart and mind scream in unison. "Come on Bell." She whispered, placing her tiny hands onto Bella's cold body in an attempt to rouse her. "Bella, please." Her voice cracked and rain began to fall as the storm finally broke. "You can't die. Not now. You promised." She clung onto a stray hint of anger. "Isabella Marie Swan you promised you wouldn't die out here!" Rain lashed her body and began to wash away the blood that had covered her body for what seemed like an age. "Please?" Alice sat back on her haunches, colder than she could remember ever being. "I love you."

"I love you too." Bella's voice was barely a whisper and for a second Alice thought the wind was playing tricks on her tortured heart. It wasn't until Alice's sharp eyes caught movement in Bella's hand that she believed it. She flew forwards and pulled Bella to her, not caring that it pulled an injury in her chest that she could remember getting. Not caring that the rain was now whipping their flesh painfully. Bella was hugging her back with all her newborn strength but Alice didn't care that her ribs were creaking in protest. She only cared that Bella was alive. Alive and in her arms.

* * *

I feel really bad for Seth now, I can't believe I killed Leah :( I liked Leah.


	13. XIII: Pale Pink Zinnias

A chapter to finish on friends :) thank you for your constant reading and reviewing it's like technological motivation for me to write faster...

* * *

The rain continued to fall all night and the wolf pack only wandered back to the Cullen house in the early morning having found the last of the missing. Lucy Reynolds was slung over Sam's shoulder her flesh pale and mismatched eyes milky. Leon howled startling the child sleeping in his lap and soon she was crying too. The sudden noise brought everyone to the living room. The discovery brought the body count to three. Michael, Leah and Lucy were all dead. It didn't feel right to Alice that the wolf pack had lost people when her family stood perfectly fine. "Don't feel guilty. Don't you dare." Jasper's husky voice murmured in her ear and he took her hand in his carefully drawing circles on her palm with his calloused thumb. "Don't you disrespect them by feeling guilty for living." Alice nodded. Her husband was riddled in scars now and she could plainly see where his flesh had been torn away only hours before.

"He's right." Bella whispered from her other side; taking her other hand and placing a feather light kiss on the back of it. Alice nodded slowly as she watched Leon take his sister from Sam and carry her back outside where she just knew he was placing her into the grave that had been dug for any of the fallen. Michael and Leah were already lying side by side in the trench, six feet below although Michael was simply a pile of ashes.

"That's it then." Amber's voice was subdued as she spoke from the other side of the room but everyone heard her. "It's done." She still had no left hand but it didn't seem to bother her and she was tossing a roll of bandage into the air and catching it easily with her right hand. "We should go fill in the hole." Amber threw herself to her feet. Alice felt a rush of anger towards the other vampire; she'd lost two friends and she wasn't even grieving. It was just business as usual for Amber.

"What's your deal?" She asked as the brunette passed. "How can you be so cold?" Amber stopped in front of Alice with a soft chuckle.

"Sweetheart it's the safest thing to be." Alice could feel Bella's grip tighten slightly and Jasper send a wave of calm to her but she still bristled at the comment. "Besides Luce always made me swear I wouldn't cry. You know she wanted a pirate themed funeral? Think I can get a hook for this?" Amber waved her stump with a sad smile before stalking out of the door, back ramrod straight and now fully golden eyes fixed determinedly ahead.

"We should have a party." A deep voice suggested. The voice was rough with tears and Alice turned to see Jacob standing halfway down the stairs, leaning heavily on the handrail and covered in bandages. "In their memory, you know. Like a wake only not completely depressive. They'd hate that." Alice nodded a small part of herself awakening at the word 'party'. She used to love organising parties for any reason at all and she'd make this one special. For the fallen. She could see a small smile on Bella's still cracked face as well and a vision hit of her, Bella and Charlie dancing wildly in the Cullen living room not far from the spot they were stood on. She knew then that the party would go ahead.

"It's a good idea." Jasper smiled up at the werewolf and helped him down the final steps. "Just leave it to us, you're still broken." Jacob gave a rumbling laugh and tried to hide the wince the laugh caused.  
"Whatever Major Fangs." Jacob wandered outside with Jasper still supporting him. Alice couldn't remember when the pair became friends but she was glad they did. Jacob was good for the soul and she knew that Jasper's soul was more than a little cracked in places.

"Shall we go out?" Bella murmured drawing Alice from her musings with a soft kiss on her cheek. Alice still couldn't understand how Bella had forgiven her so easily after she'd beaten her. So what if she'd been under Dante's control, she should still have been able to fight it. Fight him. She flexed her fingers involuntarily as the feel of granite flesh breaking ghosted across her knuckles. "It's ok Alice. It's all ok." Bella brushed her lips across the pixie-like girl's knuckles, knowing instantly what her companion was thinking. "I love you and it's all ok." Alice returned her gaze to Bella's face with a bright smile as a realisation hit her hard.

"It is isn't it?" She pulled the newborn to her and placed a sweet kiss against her lips. Bella growled softly when she pulled away again. Alice's only reply was a quiet chuckle as she led the newborn outside to the graveside where the others were waiting for them.

/

The funeral had been a short affair. Better to keep it short and sweet rather than long and painful Leon had muttered halfway through Carlisle's speech. The Cullen patriarch was almost fully healed and as the son of a pastor he was the best man for the job of overseeing the affair. Seth was huddled into Jacob's good side, no longer crying but his eyes were red raw and he was still trembling. Alice was almost sure he was in shock but the boy seemed to be coping well.  
Leon was stood stock-still, head held high, eyes hard with a sniffling Ruby cradled in his arms. Amber held his hand in hers and it was simply a mark of comfort Alice realised, nothing more as she had come to expect from the other vampire.

Afterwards they had headed inside to where Alice and Jasper were already racing around pinning streamers to the walls and pulling furniture out of the way.  
Esme and Bella were holed up in the kitchen, cooking for the wolves and the solitary human that only Alice knew was on his way.  
When the police cruiser pulled up outside everyone in the house froze. Ruby who had been curled up in wolf form phased back quickly and lay still with a look of panic on her face. Alice danced over to the door and pulled it open, smiling widely at Charlie Swan and waving him inside. "Good morning Chief." His moustache twitched as he followed the youngest Cullen girl inside.

"I saw something amazing yesterday." Charlie commented sitting down on the sofa between Jacob and Leon, his dark eyes brimming with questions. "I saw a man change into a wolf." Sam was leaning on the wall and Charlie cast the Quileute a glance. Sam saluted him casually. Alice now saw Jacob's plan of how Charlie could be told about Bella. About the Cullens.

"I saw wolves die yesterday." Sam muttered and Charlie fixed his dark eyes on him completely. "Welcome to the wake." The chief frowned.

"Doesn't look like a wake." Alice took the man's hand, pulled him easily to his feet and twirled him around eliciting an embarrassed laugh and a blush from him.  
"Doesn't have to Chief." She grinned. "Hey Bells?" The brunette poked her head around the doorframe of the kitchen with a curious grin. The grin faded when she recognised her father.

"Bella?" Charlie released Alice and took a tentative step towards his daughter. "Wow. I mean…wow." A dazzling smile broke across Bella's face and she flew across the room to sweep her father into a tight hug. The wolves twitched slightly, ready to move if blood lust began to surface but Alice merely folded her arms and shared a smile with Jacob. It was nice to see her girl happy again.

"Hey Dad." Bella spoke into the Chief's shoulder, refusing to let him go. "I guess you can see I'm-"

"A vampire?" She gasped pulling away slightly and Alice giggled. Bella shot her a dark look but it only served to make her laugh more. "A boy called Toby explained everything." Alice felt a rush of gratitude to the half-vampire boy that she'd probably never see again. "I wanted you to know that it doesn't change anything Bells. You're still my little girl and I still love you." Leon put a hand to his eye and wiped away an imaginary tear. Jacob slapped him playfully and the pair quickly devolved into squabbling toddlers instead of alpha werewolves.

"I love you too Dad." Bella planted a quick kiss onto her father's cheek, making him blush further. The Chief extricated himself from his daughter's grip and motioned for Alice to join them. She stepped forwards, kamikaze butterflies taking up residence in her stomach when dark eyes that were so much like Bella's used to be fixed on her.

"You guys didn't have to hide you know." Charlie's eyes twinkled. "I'd prefer it be you to that good for nothing brother of yours anyhow." Alice smiled bashfully and she knew that if Bella could still blush she would have been tomato red by then. She was saved having to answer by Amber racing down the stairs and turning on the stereo. There was an old pirate hat on her head and she tossed matching ones to Leon and Ruby with a grin.

"Come on guys. No way would those three let you mope around for more than a minute. On your feet." The wolves stood with small smiles and meandered into the kitchen. Amber tossed Alice a wink as she followed them. It only took the vampire a second to realise that she was now alone in the room with Bella and Charlie and the music meant no one could hear anything anymore.

"Thank you sir." She murmured and felt Bella take her hand. "It means a lot." Charlie smiled softly and wandered to the side of the room where one of many vases had been placed by Alice or Esme.  
"Why the flowers?" He asked, lifting one from the vase and smelling it. It was a pale pink zinnia flower and it brought a small smile to her face. She brushed her lips across Bella's hand.

"In memory of absent friends."

* * *

Yay pirate funerals :) thanks for reading guys and girls :)


End file.
